Abu Dhabi F1 track – first video lap
A lap of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix track, which will host the final race of the F1 season this year, is shown for the first time in this on-board video.
The footage posted by James Allen shows Bruno Senna lapping the circuit in a two-seater racing car.
A couple of things strike you from watching the video:
First, the underground pit lane exit is narrow, but it looks like there’s enough room for one car to get past another if it becomes stuck.
But they’re going to spend along time on the pit lane speed limiter there, which will discourage drivers from strategies that involve lots of pit stops.
The opening sequence of bends (which were originally dubed a ‘reverse Eau Rouge’) don’t look anything like as quick and as challenging as we first thought.
At around 1′24 we get a good view of what the run-off area beneath the stadium looks like. This is an interesting innovation which will hopefully allow spectators to sit closer to the track without compromising safety.
It raises the question of what would happen if a car were airborne at the point where it goes off the track – presumably that risk has been assessed and deemed acceptable.
The entry to the left-right-left chicane at around 1′43 has a very flat kerb on the right which blends with an additional piece of track. We could see drivers getting into trouble for using too much of the entry kerb.
There’s not a lot of run-off area in the latter part of the lap, but that series of similar, sharp, short-radius corners is not very inspiring.
What do you think of the track and the video? Have your say in the comments.
Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
- Abu Dhabi F1 track revealed in pictures
- Abu Dhabi Grand Prix launch pictures
- Abu Dhabi Grand Prix circuit video lap
- Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2009
Yas Island Marina Circuit - click to enlarge
hmmm… not sure about this. looks pretty boring.
hopefully those grandstands will be full – they look awfully big!!
I hate to be a wet blanket, but this track looks hideously dull.
Acres of runoff. Drivers should be punished for going off the track, like at Suzuka.
It looks like a kart track set up in a supermarket carpark.
It reminds me of the “Mickey Mouse” Turns 14 to 21 on Singapore, another of those pole to chequered flag tracks…
kovy!
yes! nail on the head, looks like a dusty karting track… throw a few apexs in and lots of alternate routes in a car park and you have yourself abu dhabi!
bruno did drive it slow though, maybe it’ll be interesting.
i totally agree that drivers should be punished for going off the track, they should throw down grass on the edges.
then again, the dust off the racing line might be punishment enough.
Keith rocks!! James Allen Sucks!!
The pit exit is like a supermarket car park
This video was a waste of 5 minutes of my life. Yawn.
Bruno’s going awfully slowly in places there … also, does anyone feel that it looks like the colours have been washed out?
Looks like a liesurely sunday drive.
Thanks for posting that Kieth.
Looks interesting, a little more so than the other new tracks. Jenson should be hoping that the title doesn’t come down to this race, just because of the ‘unknown’ factor.
Man those laps seemed slow, I think my moms Oldsmo-buick could have kept up
.
Oh, dear.
Very tight, mostly point and squirt. As Keith pointed, out, still more opportunities for “chicane cutting” and other off-track “controversies” (planned controversies, if you ask me) involving a Ferrari line, an everyone else line and decisions that somehow don’t make sense to everyone in light of Spa, Singapore and others.
When you get to the few sections that are not tedious slow chicanes, there’s still nothing that looks genuinely challenging.
There’s always a novelty value when we see single seaters on a new track and I felt it, for example at Valencia (where at least there is that final series of flat or almost flat kinks leading up to the pit straight). I expect there will be some novelty value with this one too, Peter Windsor et al will declare the new circuit a fantastic new Tilke design and it will get a certain buzz. But my impressions are that it will be regarded as a Valencia or a Hungary (actually probably sub-Hungaroring) in a year or two.
The track layout isn’t exactly spectacular, but overall I like what I see. The underground run off, pit lane tunnel, hotel bridge etc aren’t things you’d usually get with a new track, the Hockenheim esque stadium section should be exciting, and the run off areas don’t stretch for miles on either side of the track, like they do in most new circuits.
(Sorry to go all political, but my main objection to this circuit is that the Abu Dhabi government is prepared to spend billions on building as extravagent a circuit as possible, even though so many people in that country live in poverty)
Don’t be sorry about the politics, Ned. In my neighbourhood the upcoming winter Olympics are going to cost a cool billion in security alone. Vancouver’s downtown east side is the poorest postal code in Canada. Will they see a dime? Not a chance.
We could discuss politics in sports forever, and F1 is not immune from that disease, not by a long stretch.
Erm Ned,
United Arab Emirates is one of the richest countries in the world and also is one of the most developed.
There is basically no poverty there.
I can assure you that a fair percentage of people in the UAE do live in extreme poverty, people like the Asian migrants who will have worked through the heat of the day building this circuit, and been paid virtually nothing for it.
There is of course money in Abu Dhabi, but they tend to waste it on things like F1 and Manchester City, and their Royal Family, rather than the people who need it.
UAE is one of the most economically developed nations in the world. It’s not a poor country by any means.
Ask the guys that build all these things. Paid pennies….its the side UAE keep well hidden. Not nice.
How much do you think are payed the filipinos that clean your grans bottom in a nursing home?
Well one bad thing can hardly be used to justify another. Besides, at least there’s a reasonable minimum wage in the UK, which is presumably something which doesn’t exist in Abu Dhabi, where the concept of human rights is hardly advanced.
Just because it’s not a poor country – doesn’t mean people don’t live in poverty.
The divide between the rich and poor is extreme – a country trying to develop and encourage people and companies to move aren’t going to advertise the fact its built by people who live in place that don’t have working toilets and sewers. Yes it all looks glossy on paper – but that is not the real side of the country – its just the advert.
Why have got a chicane right before the hairpin?? It ruins any chances of overtaking there. I notice the track does go straight on there. Are they definitely using it?
Another counterclockwise circuit I see.
I’m not convinced about that run off area. Most crashes occur when coming out of a corner too fast. Just where the stands appear to be located!
I agree with the pit lane exit – very tight. It didn’t look like there were any lights in the tunnel yet. Hopefully they’re still to be fitted.
As you mention, the length of the pit lane will be crucial for strategy. Do you know if a time has been worked out for an entrance to exit stop?
I think the chicane right before the hairpin is a good idea, it will let the cars follow each other closer into the hairpin and out of it to get a good drag down the stright for the OVERTAKING!
I think this ‘reverse eau rouge’ will be much different and more challenging at full pace, but having the chicane right there before the hairpin… what a waste!
we’ll never know now
Surely without the chicane there would be enough flat out bend then straight to get drag into the hairpin and overtake under-braking. I don’t see anyone following anyone closely through the chicane or hairpin, but we’ll see, maybe you’re right.
I suspect the real reason the chicane is there is to slow the cars for the spectators. I’ve never understood the logic of that, who wants to see F1 cars dawdling, I’d sooner see them flash past me in a couple of seconds at 180mph. The logical way to build circuits would be to create vistas where you can see them at full speed for a decent stretch then into a corner.
The drivers will turn off the pit lane speed limiter when he passes the white lines at the end of the garages, he won’t be limited through the tunnel
Truth be told, it looks a little dull to me – both the lap and the track. But the track does have a very long straight, and that speeds are upto almost 320kph there, so expect the KERS cars to be zooming through that part of track. And the fact that the race starts at sunset and ends in floodlights, I suppose that would make the race a little interesting (but isn’t that going to be some sort of safety issue?).
Nah, if NASCAR and Indycar can handle sunset and night races, F1 can.
Was that actually a full speed lap? It seemed like he was just cruising around for fun.
Also, it seemed pretty dusty at the beginning.
He went over the white line on pit exit. Oh dear.
Bad Bruno! Stop & Go for you!
Apart from the trackside facilities, it looks quite dull. I think Hermann Tilke may have upped his already stratospheric Valium dosage while designing this track layout. Hope its more exciting on race day.
Valencia without the interesting scenery…
Valencia had interesting scenery?!
Building sites are interesting… aren’t they?
I think he was refering to the bikini sightings.
Can we hope to find bikini clad gals in the grand stands & yachts of Abu Dubai
Or is it prohibited there? I’ve heard that drivers are not even allowed to spray champagne at Bahrain podium ceremony!! Could Dubai follow Bahrain? Its close by, isn’t it?
Well, there was that shot of the rooftop pool with scantly clothed ladies at the start of the race. And there was one shot of the beach right next to the track…
That almost put me to sleep. I guess we’ll have to wait and see how the track races.
Agreed!
I normally really enjoy in-car views, but I guess all of those I’ve seen before this one were at racing speeds.
That epic pit exit is going to make the pit stop delta very long. The entry is before the pit straight even begins. I also expect a couple people to stuff it nicely coming down that little hill, on cold tires, into a tight bend, under the bridge—requiring a safety car. Why didn’t they just put the pits on the other side of the road?
Otherwise, looks dull. The little hill in sector one is weak sauce. If you are going to drop this kind of coin on a track, get out the heavy equipment and recreate aqua minerali or the laguna seca corkscrew.
I think it looks quiet good. The lap quite obliviously wasn’t at full speed. The grand stand section looks cool.
It probably won’t match some of the older tracks as far as excitement goes, purely because of the safety requirements, but it looks more interesting than Valencia and Signapore.
It looks like a brutal mutation of Singapore/Bahrain and Velencia. Flat, too technical (though the high-speed sector 2 looks ok), random buildings, track looks really dusty. I’ll give the track the benefit, but I’m expecting another boring Tilkedrome.
Yes, I do hope I’m wrong
I have one word.BORING
I agree with people that yawn.
It still looks like a gun. In fact, it looks like a purpose-built version of Valencia.
It has too many sections that demand a slam on the brakes and not enough that demand flat-out or beg the car to destroy itself under g-forces. At least by bringing the spectators closer we have finally ascertained the knowledge that Tilke likes slowing cars to a crawl.
The track needs more elevation changes, I think the most pronounced one was the pit exit.
Yeah I notice a lot of off-camber/negative banked corners. Its like the cars are meant to go slow!
That pit lane exit is so long that the only realistic strategy is a one-stop unless tire degradation is very bad.
Another tilke, all the tracks are exactly the same!
the chicane before the hairpin on to the back straight should not be there, there is no high speed corners, its like a huge runoff street circuit.
Has Tilke done any racing, maybe Bernie should hire someone who has
It would be interesting to see what a group of recent ex-drivers would come up with.
Looks interesting, but doubt if it would produce exciting races. Just hoping for a sand storm
Why? We had a dust storm down here in Australia a few weeks ago, and you could barely see more than a few metres ahead of your. Hell, in Broken Hill, it was pitch black. If ever there was a sandstorm, the race would be halted; there was a minor one in Bahrain during pre-seaon testing this year and that meant Ferrari and Toyota had to put their testing programs back a few days.
Ugh.
I really had hopes Eau Rouge 2 – Sands of the Middle East might make this track palatable, but it isn’t. At all. As others have said it’s featureless, far too tight, and with just a corner or two that are viable for passing in.
If we see a single change of position not involving the pits we’ll probably be lucky.
Not bad, just have to see how the pros do on it.
So you don’t consider Senna as a pro?
He wasn’t doing laps “race style” though.
They really should remove the chicane before the hairpin, that would make it already better for overtaking.
As it allows for different lines, brake earlier and accelarete earlier onto the long straight or brake very late but sacrifice speed on straigh.
The pit exit might be the coolest thing of this track – I hope that part is not speed limited.
As many have already said what is the point of sector 3, you are in the desert have all the space, not bound by city blocks and you design an inner city section.
Tilke could’ve done a better job be adding some elevation changes. there are hardly any visible ones. Camber=0??? Detroit street circuit is miles better.
Did you not notice the one in the second and third corners, with the blind turn in on each corner? Or the way they’ve played around with the camber at eight and nine? And down at the chicane, which is once again completely blind?
Television is terrible for showing height, but the rise through the second and third corner is eighteen metres high, the size of a three or four-storey building.
I don’t think it is speed limited because there is a big white line at the end of the pits (with the trafic lights) and I think on every other tracks the speed restricted section is only on the stright of the pits,
I hope it was just because he was going slowly. Three-stop strategies are discouraged enough as it is!
I don’t think the section would have been long and straight enough to allow overtaking into the hairpin, so the chicane is a good idea in bunching the cars up for a race down the long straight.
Ideally though, they should just the opposite way round! I think that would be a much better lap, especially on Lap 1 as everyone would be close together in the twisty section.
I think it would:
Accelerate out of corner 3, corner 4 is an acceleration zone (even Bruno in his tourist mobile was changing up!), ignore the chicane & late brake into 7, the hairpin.
The otherway round would make a really interesting pit entry – racing F1 cars through that section. Or people rushing in and hitting the wall in last tight corner.
Why blame Tilke? He works for Bernie. Bernie wants it safe and boring. Mission accomplished.
Bruno is gonna have a tough time getting into F1 next year if all his laps are driven like that.
But I guess the reason for the conservative method of getting through corners was due to the fact that the track was dusty, the tyres were cold, and the car had a passenger on board. I guess at racing speeds, some of those corners will look more impressive than they did in the video.
I failed to see the run-off area go under the grandstand though.
The track looks slow and unexciting. In an F1 car they will be constantly on the breaks after a short acceleration.
It’s like his not even trying.
Surely Bernie wants large audiences, surely the way to get that is through exciting tracks, sureley the best way to acheive that is if the tracks don’t all looks the same, feel the same, drive the same, and bore the hell out of all souls involved.
its coz he’s got a passenger in the back. so safety first!
Precisely, I’m not even sure is he even allowed to take it any faster with ”civilian” passenger in the back.
Like really, how hard can it be to design a track that looks interesting and it fun to drive on? There’s no colour, no good scenery and its flat. Except for that gimmicky pit lane exit. I swear I could design something better than this
ugh… one giant leap for marketing, yet another small step backwards for F1. If Ari Vatanen becomes FIA president, is it possible he may force changes in the track selection process?
Vatanen meets with Mosely
The President of the FIA has zero control of that. It rests in the hands of Bernie Ecclestone and FOM.
Yes – zis is ze problem.
Not a full-speed lap, so it’s difficult to judge based on this.
I’m liking this track more and more. Definitely better than Singapore and Valencia, I’d put this up with China in my rating of Tilke tracks. Alas, with modern F1 how it is, and being on a dusty circuit, this circuit probably won’t be showing off its full potential. At least we have the chicane-hairpin, which should bunch people up for some genuine overtaking, and nice to see the chicane after the second long straight/curve isn’t another Singapore Sling. And the final section of the lap isn’t as boring as I feared it would be, though I’m getting sick of these slow twisty sections; they should have extended the small straight between Turns 14 and 15, so that 16 is as “high up” as 19 is, before coming down again to Turn 17 (reference: ).
I still can’t get these links to work. That should be: http://www.f1mix.com/images/circuits/abu_dhabi_yas_marina_circuit_large.jpg
reminds me of china and Malaysia put together lol. Looks quite sweet.
I bet the F1 drivers are annoyed that they cant test this year…i bet there watching the video and are like “bruno you ass i want to drive on the track”
Dull dull Dull.
Another Tilke drome, bland, unexciting and lets face it no challenge to the drivers. Drivers with no talent could get a decent lap round here.
I think a constant chorus of “Tilke sucks, Tilke sucks” can make us predisposed to dislike a new track. I really want to give it a chance to host a race before hating it.
Bruno was only going 100% on the straights would you want him to risk the safety of the passenger?
you can clearly see he breaks early around the corners come on people use your heads.
It’s ok my favorite part would have to be the exit part of the pits, its like driving up to a motorway.
I wish the track was a real gun, then I could use it shoot myself to quell the boredom. I just hope the this track yields a good and exciting race.
lol
I am not sure how Keith reached to the conclusion that he reverse Eau Rouge is very slow. I hope Bruno’s dreadful speed wasn’t a factor.
OKAY track. We should see overtaking. But that would be mainly due to cars trying to do a long stint (since, 1-stop seems to be the way to go) on the softer tyres on a very very dusty track.
ZZZZZZZZZZ – looks like it’ll be duller than Hungary usually is without the chance of rain, awful awful.
They don’t make track or road cyclists turn twisty little corners again and again to see if they can stay on, so why on earth make F1 cars do it? (F1 cars doing a stage of the Tour de France, now that I would like to see, even if only on the Playstation… should be a fantasy option ;p)
Seriously, I agree with Keith that pitlane makes 1 stop strategies a no brainer, and with no refueling next year, no-ones going to risk a stop for a fresh pair of boots and a late charge. A custom built track should aim to have the shortest pitlane not the longest.
The question is if two cars touch and spin in that pitlane hitting the wall – would that be a red flag? If it was coming up to everyone’s pit window and people were short of fuel, it’d have to be wouldn’t it.
At least it isn’t all encased in concrete walls like Valencia, but it does look very pointy-squirty as others have said.
There are six or seven gantries on the way round with open diagonal supports in them (one legged things that reach right across the track). Are these for signalling lights?
Don’t like the look of it personally, I played around with it on rFactor (i know, it’s not the same thing) – doesn’t do anything for me though…
Would have preferred to seen DC’s laps that he did last week in that two-seater.
It would be interesting to see all the drivers going out on the track though, and once it’s rubber’d in to see what kind of speeds or variations of racing lines they take through some of the turns.
I am afraid I share the sentiments expresses by most. I fear it will provide us with a rather dull spectacle. The pit entrance and exit are interesting along with the runoff areas under the spectators.
Keith… we are all guilty of complaining about the new circuit designs, myself included. How about a competition to come up with a design for a new circuit? Complete blank sheet of paper and let’s see if we could do any better!
Problem is: a race track-planner doesn’t have a “complete blank sheet of paper”. The investor wants the track to go around the edges of a marina – the planner has to incorporate that. The investor wants a stadium section – the planner draws one up. The investor wants the track to pass under his shiny new hotel – the planner fulfills his desire. Easy to build an interesting track like this, isn’t it?
If you want to see what Tilke can do, if you give him an interesting location and a free hand in planning a demanding circuit, look
here …and for the gradient here
Prometheus makes an excellent point. Designers are very rarely given a blank sheet of paper.
The plans for Blister-Berg look awesome! The longitudinal section shows heap of change in grade with some pretty steep sections, up to 10% longitudinal grade with tight vertical curves. It looks sweet!
Have to say it’s not grabbing me. The pit exit looks really tight and it’ll be dusty (the dust will collect in it) so it’ll kill the heat in the tyres and be slippery… I predict at least one driver dropping it in there. Then the rejoin to the track is crested so they won’t be able to see anything coming…
The straights are dull, the run-off area under the grandstand at the end of the long straight is a gimmick and as said above, most accidents happen on the exits of corners, not from people going straight on (Webber in S’pore, Massa in Hungary, Schumacher at Silverstone 99 being notable exceptions). Come to think of it… what is at the back of that run-off?
I appreciate there’s been at least some effort to create gradient, the up- and downhill run after Turn one looks interesting to me. The lot of slower corners following in quick succession seem pretty technical.
It will be a little different to see Formula 1 cars at actual racing speeds — a demonstration run with a two-seater (that looks a bit like a modified GP2 or something like that) on a dusty track doesn’t exactly match what speeds we’re likely going to see on the GP weekend.
yaaaaaawwwnn….
I am really really pessimistic. I’m pretty tired of seeing sharp 90 degree corners. What’s happened to the long constant radius corners? I want to see a Carousel, not a square.
I’m also tired of seeing plain and boring 90left-90right chicanes because all they do is create space between cars and controversy for corner cutting.
Oh lets make a track unique by creating a random underground pitlane, a hotel goes over the track, a run-off area going underneath a grandstand. Super(!)
Oh well, lets see if the racing is any good, and if it is, well I’ll have been proved wrong.
It doesn’t look particularly exciting, but I am trying to reserve judgement until we see an F1 car go round there at full speed.
The pit exit looks..er, interesting to say the least. Reckon that could through in some trouble.
It’s a bit repetitive.
Three tight hairpins, seven right angle bends, three slow chicanes, two looooong straight bits. Compare with Suzuka where each sector has a totally different challenge in it. Apart from the hotel crossing there’s not much ‘wow’ factor.
Hopefully there can at least be some racing.
I don’t understand the need for the underground pits bit thing shoved in.
Because to do a normal one would mean putting the pit exit square on the racing line for the first turn whether it came out before or after the corner itself.
Another track with no overtaking. The race should be very boring because cars will constantly be turning.
I am not that pessimistic.
I’d say we leave this track a chance before destroying it. I think there are some overtaking spots in it.
I agree it is a bit too technical and over-turny, but i want to see 20+ cars trying at their best to make my mind.
I have no doubt that it will be boring. The only way it will be exciting is if the championship comes down to this race. If Button wins it in Brazil, then the race here will no only be boring, but pointless to watch. I will still watch, but I will be asking myself, ‘why’.