DC's Guide To The Yas Marina Circuit

19 | 10 | 09
One man has both flown over and driven around the new track at Yas Marina. Luckily for us he’s our reserve driver and we’re on speaking terms. Here’s Mr Coulthard’s views on the new Abu Dhabi circuit…

“Having had the opportunity to drive the circuit, what struck me is that it’s a two-stage track; the first half of the lap until corner nine is classic new track. There’s the fast section at the beginning from Turn One to the Turn Four tight hairpin with the grandstand literally overhead, giving great viewing for the spectators. The 1.2 kilometre back straight should give an opportunity for some slip-streaming and over-taking and then the backside of the circuit has a real street circuit feel to it where you come along the section that takes you to the hotel and underneath the hotel via a series of 90 degree right-handers, left-handers before opening out to the end of the lap and a medium speed corner on to the start-finish straight. It’s a very challenging pit in and equally difficult pit out which is actually in a tunnel under the circuit and is going to make it particularly challenging for the drivers coming in and out of pitstops. There are great facilities and air-conditioned garages which will make it a little bit easier and also having an evening race will obviously take some of the heat out of what can be a very hot and humid conditions. I think the twilight aspect of the race will be more of a visual for the spectators and for the TV but I think for the drivers it will be absolutely fine, there is enough overhead lighting it will just blend from day into night, no problem.”

Abu Dhabi is going to be an interesting venue for a number of reasons: it’s another Middle Eastern flyaway, it’s the first twilight race and the city’s going all out to impress.

So, not only do we have the inaugural Formula One race, there are art exhibitions, three support races, a fly-past and performances by Kings of Leon and Aerosmith while the circuit complex will include a theme park and a water park. Clearly the good people in the United Arab Emirates see Singapore as their blueprint rather than Bahrain. Or, as some of the PR would have us believe, this is the Arabian Monaco… you can even park your yacht in the Yas Marina.

Although like Bahrain, the city will be affected by the sandy conditions of the desert, blown around by the ocean winds. November also sees the occasional fog patch as well. That and the sunset will make driver visibility interesting…

Designed by Hermann Tilke (the man who gave us Malaysia, Bahrain, China, Istanbul and, er… Valencia) Yas Marina has been under construction for more than a year and will feature lighting around the track - like Singapore and the MotoGP circuit at Qatar - to cope with that Arabian sunset the season will finish under.

The race itself is 55 laps of the 5.5km track, which consists of twelve corners and two huge straights and includes the now infamous under-the-hotel section and pit exit which is through a tunnel. The straights should see the cars reaching a speed of around 320kmh.

The first motorsport run will be a GP2 test this weekend, when we’ll see whether the new circuit is indeed the Monte Carlo of the Middle East.