The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix has been the last race of a season since 2009 and takes place one of the most expensive racing venues in the world. Designed by renowned architect Hermann Tilke as the, at the time, second Middle Eastern Formula 1 venue, the Yas Marina Circuit forms part of a complex on the artificial Yas Island that has had over $40 billion invested into its amenities and attractions over the last 11 years.

The circuit, however, came first. Construction began in 2007 and was finished in October 2009 at an estimated cost of $1 billion, ready to host that season’s finale as the first major event held on the island – a grand prix won by Sebastian Vettel.

The original layout featured two sequences of chicanes at the current turns five and nine, but these were removed as part of a raft of changes made to improve racing ahead of the 2021 grand prix. They were replaced by quicker, long radius corners and some of the slower turns such as 12-14 and 15-16 were opened up and made faster too. The end product is a faster lap that’s more conducive to racing action rather than the processional races the circuit had gained a reputation for in the past.

Characteristic Considerations

Racing at sunset

One of this race in Abu Dhabi’s most unique features is its timing. Lights out comes at 5pm track time which sees the drivers begin racing at sunset and slowly transition into a full night race over its 58 laps, and the brightness of over 3,900 LED lighting fixtures around the track increases in intensity to match.

Visibility due to the setting sun can therefore be a tricky point for the drivers to resolve, but with darkened visors and the lighting designed to mimic daylight as naturally as possible, often the impact is minimal.

The bigger challenge is managing the reduction in temperature that comes as the sun goes down. A cooler track surface offers lower grip than a warm one and graining can arise as a result of the transition in temperature mid-race.

Getting a read on the impact of the changes on tyre performance but also setup and strategy in just one representative practice session (FP2) is a key part of that challenge, and getting it wrong when these cars have such narrow performance windows can be costly.

Split in sector characteristics

Since the changes made to the circuit in 2021, the lap has put more of an emphasis on higher speed cornering but also higher speed straight-line runs with DRS into turn five, for example, and again into turn nine.

Sector one is short, coming to an end after just four corners, the majority of which are flowing and higher speed with the turns two-to-four sequence taken flat out come qualifying.

Sector two begins with the braking zone into turn five, a left-hander hairpin that can be an overtaking point on the lap. Getting the power down quickly out of it is key to keeping ahead with the second long straight into the main overtaking zone coming next – the run with DRS into the chicane of turns six and seven – which are followed by another run with DRS into the second hairpin at turn nine.

Sector three includes that hairpin and from there remains a twistier, lower speed section as the cars head into and through the iconic hotel section – putting an emphasis on balance and grip.

Balancing the setup to meet the demands of the higher-speed flat out runs that are key in defending or attacking for position come race day with the tyres holding on through the slower, technical sector three often sees the teams opt for medium-high downforce setups.

Pit exit tunnel

Aside from the run underneath the hotel in the final sector, the pit lane exit being a tunnel is one of the more unique parts of this circuit’s design. Drivers run down a ramp into a tunnel that heads under the main circuit with a left-hand corner before they head back up and emerge into the high-speed turn three.

It’s the only circuit on the calendar with a pit exit like this, and to add to the challenge, the run through the tunnel isn’t done under the pit lane speed limit. The drivers can take it at racing speeds, which despite it being a twistier and more unusual way to rejoin the race post-pitting, keeps the pit time loss here at around 21 seconds.

It can add a level of jeopardy to how strategy plays out on Sunday too as whether a driver has pulled off an undercut to exit in front of their rival is only really obvious once they emerge from the tunnel – keeping the strategists, and fans, on their toes!

The Compounds

Pirelli aren’t changing anything compound-wise heading into another season finale around Yas Marina and in line with their historic selections here, the softer compounds will be on offer. The C3 will be the hard, the C4 will be the medium and the C5 will be the soft.

Last year’s grand prix saw limited graining and degradation, despite the track’s characteristics that can encourage it, and Pirelli anticipate that those levels could reduce even further again this year in light of the compound changes they made over last winter to increase their resistance to the phenomenon.

It meant the strategy flipped last year from the two-stop seen from most drivers in 2023, to the one-stop medium>hard that played out for the majority of the field in 2024. Expect the same this year given that no difficulties arose in taking a hard set to the end, even for those who boxed before half distance.

That said, a two-stop still could be seen should degradation be greater than anticipated, a neutralisation arise, or if drivers find themselves in traffic wanting to try and get to clean air to maximise the pace advantage offered by a new set of tyres.

The only shift from last year to this year that Pirelli are really expecting is perhaps an increased use of the soft in making up a one-stop strategy, in light of the expected lower graining. It has typically only been a qualifying tyre around here in the past, yet it could be one to build a strategy around this year.

That will require good management of the thermal degradation that is typically seen more on the rears here, given the emphasis on traction, particularly in the final sector.

The Weather

As is typical for this final race, hot, dry conditions are expected even as the sun dips and the lights come on.

Friday is expected to be cloudier with temperatures between 26 and 28°C over both sessions, with a light north-westerly wind. Saturday will be similar, with sunnier conditions yet comparable temperatures to Friday.

And come race day, sunny conditions are expected which will see the race begin under temperatures around 26°C yet run down to a minimum of 22°C by the chequered flag.

The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix begins with Free Practice 1 at 13:30 local time on Friday December 5th. The rest of the timings for the weekend are as follows (all in local time):

• FP1: Friday 5th December, 13:30-14:30
• FP2: Friday 5th November, 17:00-18:00
• FP3: Saturday 6th December, 14:30-15:30
• Qualifying: Saturday 6th December, 18:00-19:00
• Abu Dhabi Grand Prix: Sunday 7th December, 17:00