Singapore denies no time for F1 track preparation

(GMM) A Singapore official has played down concerns the city-state will run out of time to prepare the floodlit street circuit for this year's formula one race.

Singapore will host the Youth Olympic Games in the same Marina Bay area until the end of August — less than a month before the F1 circus arrives in town for round 15 of the 2010 world championship.

But Justin Chew, the Singapore Tourism Board's executive director of F1 projects, told the state-owned MediaCorp: "We do have enough time.

"Based on the timeline set by the Youth Olympic Games organizers, they will take at least two to three weeks to vacate the circuit completely.

"But we have already 'de-conflicted' it and whatever time they need to move out and what we need to put in the area have been worked out," he insisted.

The tight schedule means that fundamental structures for the street circuit such as lighting trusses are already being erected.