All to know about the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix including Yas Marina Circuit stats and previous winners

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The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix joined the Formula 1 calendar from the 2009 season as the series’ inaugural dusk race. It has also served as the final round of the year each season since 2014.

Formula 1 originally only awarded the Abu Dhabi GP the final race of the season in 2009 and 2010. But the promoters of the race later agreed a contract to stage the last round, prising it back from the Brazilian GP. The race at the Yas Marina Circuit has since remained F1’s finale.

The Abu Dhabi GP is also the only day-into-night race on the Formula 1 calendar. But F1 also has full-on night events at the Bahrain GP, the Saudi Arabian GP, the Singapore GP, the Las Vegas GP and the Qatar GP now. Singapore held the first F1 night race in the 2008 season.

History of the F1 Abu Dhabi GP

Formula 1 flew to the Yas Marina Circuit for the debut Abu Dhabi GP after crowning Jenson Button as the 2009 drivers’ champion at the previous race in Brazil. Brawn GP had also won the teams’ title but could not deny Red Bull a one-two in Abu Dhabi led by Sebastian Vettel.

The 2008 drivers’ champion, Lewis Hamilton, even secured pole position for McLaren with a staggering 0.667 seconds gap to Vettel. But the Briton retired after just 20 laps as Vettel got the win from Mark Webber by almost 18 seconds. Button and Brawn GP had to settle for P3.

It was Vettel’s day at the 2010 Abu Dhabi GP, as well, as he became the youngest F1 drivers’ champion. The German secured the first of his four consecutive crowns at 23 years and 133 days old, even though he entered the final race 15 points shy of Fernando Alonso of Ferrari.

What is the Yas Marina Circuit like?

The Yas Marina Circuit is considered the most expensive race track in the world after costing £800m to build. Construction of the track also started in May 2007 and lasted until October 2009, only weeks before the first Abu Dhabi GP. It also has one of the longest straights in F1.

A 1.2km (0.7m) straight between the Turn 5 hairpin and T6-7 chicane is one of the key traits of the Yas Marina Circuit. But Formula 1 drivers often avoid making overtakes into T6 as DRS between T8 and T9 offers the overtaken pilot a chance to reclaim the position they just lost.

Turns 5 and 9 were also redesigned in 2021 with the intention of improving the racing at the Abu Dhabi GP. T5 had traditionally been a slow hairpin out of a flip-flop chicane that slowed the field down. While what is now T9 was the T11-12-13 chicane but stalled the final sector.

The Yas Marina Circuit has often drawn criticism for delivering processional races as the final sector does not promote overtaking. There is only one true racing line in sector three with it mainly just 90° corners. It also generally inhibits the chance of overtakes into the first corner.

What the Yas Marina Circuit is good at is creating traction and high levels of grip without the issue of tyre abrasion, though. The track also has a unique pit exit which passes underneath T1 as renowned circuit designer Hermann Tilke located the pits on the outside of the track.

Winners of the F1 Abu Dhabi GP

Fernando Alonso lost the 2010 F1 drivers’ title to Sebastian Vettel

Alonso had one hand on the title as Formula 1 returned to Abu Dhabi in 2010. Even Webber held a better chance of winning the 2010 drivers’ title than Vettel. Hamilton, too, was still a mathematical rival. But Alonso’s hopes unravelled when Ferrari pitted him to cover Webber.

Ferrari had initially failed to cover Webber with Alonso’s teammate, Felipe Massa. But while Alonso came out ahead of the Australian, the Spaniard was now stuck behind the Renault of Vitaly Petrov. The Russian also did not need another pit stop after pitting under a safety car.

Another former Ferrari driver in Kimi Raikkonen also coined one of Formula 1’s most heavily quoted phrases at the 2012 Abu Dhabi GP. The Finn won the race for Lotus after returning to F1 that season after two years away. Yet he amusingly clashed with engineer Simon Rennie.

Raikkonen had not won a Grand Prix since the 2009 Belgian GP with Ferrari but got the lead of the 2012 Abu Dhabi GP on Lap 20 as McLaren’s Hamilton retired with a fuel pump failure. He then withstood endless pressure from Alonso, which Rennie tried to keep him aware of.

But Raikkonen bit back on their radio, barking: “Just leave me alone, I know what I’m doing.” The 2007 champion also cried, ‘Yes, yes, yes, yes, I’m doing it all the time. You don’t have to remind me every second’, after Rennie suggested he warmed his tyres behind the safety car.

Controversy engulfed the 2021 F1 drivers’ championship fight between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen

Controversy also engulfed the Formula 1 drivers’ championship fight between Hamilton and Max Verstappen at the 2021 Abu Dhabi GP. The Mercedes and Red Bull drivers went into the season finale level on 369.5 points. But Verstappen held a tie-breaker on nine wins to eight.

Yet Hamilton was set to clinch a record-breaking eighth drivers’ title right up until the last of the 58 laps. He had comfortably gapped Verstappen and overcame Sergio Perez’s attempt to block the Briton to lead. But a late safety car period threw the title fight wide open again.

Nicolas Latifi crashed his Williams on Lap 50 and forced race director Michael Masi to usher the safety car out. The Canadian’s car scattered debris on the racing line at Turn 14 and had to be recovered. But Masi diverted from F1’s sporting regulations so that the race resumed.

F1’s rulebook at the time declared that ‘any cars that have been lapped by the leader will be required to pass the cars on the lead lap and the safety car’. But Masi only ordered the cars sat between Hamilton and Verstappen – now also on a new set of soft tyres – to go through.

Masi initially stated that no drivers could unlap themselves, which would have left five cars between the title rivals. But Red Bull team principal Christian Horner pleaded for the lapped cars to be taken out of the way. He also stated over the radio, ‘We only need one racing lap’.

One racing lap was all that Masi would give, as well, but Hamilton was powerless to prevent Verstappen from getting past. Masi also told Mercedes CEO and team principal Toto Wolff, ‘It’s called a motor race’, after the Silver Arrows chief had vented, ‘Michael, this isn’t right’.