The international governing body for motorsports, FIA, will announce next month whether Singapore Grand Prix will proceed with a night or day race.

Meanwhile, the work at the circuit has been going at a wild pace and instead of a muddy area of the land at the Marina Promenade we'll see an ultra-modern pit building in exactly nine months. Not much time time but Mr. Lim Neo Chian, Deputy Chairman and Chief Executive of the Singapore Tourism Board is confident that the infrastructure for the Grand Prix will be fully ready by the deadline.

Simple yet modern and environmentally sustainable structure will accommodate 36 garages for the 12 race teams on the first floor. The second floor will be taken by the Media Center, hospitality lounges, race control center and the winners’ podium.

The 26 year old Spanish driver has become a national hero. The reigning double World Champion has accumulated some impressive statistics over his career.

The 2007 Turkish Grand Prix marks the 100th Formula 1 race for Alonso.

At the 2005 Brazilian Grand Prix he became the youngest driver to ever win a Formula 1 World Championship. He was 24 years and 59 days old.

In 2006 he became the youngest ever driver to win double World Championship title in a row.

The record for the youngest driver to win a race goes to Alonso as well. When he won the Hungarian Grand Prix in 2003 it was 26 days after his 22 Birthday.

Alonso has stood on the top step of the podium a total of 18 times in his Formula 1 career to date and he has finished on the podium on 44 separate occasions.

He has scored a total of 16 Pole Positions and 454 points in his 99 Grands Prix to date. Easy calculation shows that his average score is 4.58 per race. With Vodafone McLaren Mercedes his average score is 6.63 so far.

Over the five and a half seasons that he has competed in Formula 1 Alonso has been leading a race for a total of 4,938 kms.

But the most important contribution he has made is that his success has had a major impact on the popularity of Formula 1 in Spain. I believe many teenagers dream of following his steps.

Photo source www.grandprix.com

As expected, Indianapolis is out of the Formula 1 2008 calendar and the only American driver, Scott Speed has shared the Brickyard's fate.

The Scuderia Toro Rosso team said that Sebastian Vettel would replace Speed for the rest of the season starting with Sunday's race in Budapest, Hungary. Vettel, who is 20, had been a test driver for the BMW Sauber Formula One team.

Why American drivers have this challenge in succeeding in Formula One is a mystery to me. Speed is not a bad driver, yet he has not earned even a point in Formula 1. His double 9th position is his best result. Scott Speed has shown considerable promise, much more than Michael Andretti from the mid 90's but not enough to keep his stay in an European-dominated sport.

Let's hope that we see American drivers in the royal motor sport as well as the US Grand Prix in the future.

Photo courtesy of http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk