Abu Dhabi – Do you want to see the future of Formula 1? Then go to Abu Dhabi on November 1, and you will most likely see Bernie Ecclestone’s dearest dream.
Ecclestone despises the "old order" embodied in Magny Cours, the Nuerburgring or Montreal and enjoys much more the sophisticated projects in new markets like Singapore, Bahrain, Malaysia, Shanghai or the United Arab Emirates.
"The fact that you have the track on an island, with its own marina and hotel, is something unique. Monaco comes to mind, but the fact that this has been created here in Abu Dhabi makes it unique," Richard Cregan told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.
Cregan was for years a top official at Toyota and since late 2008 he is the "number two" at the astonishing project in the emirate.
Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, is made up of 200 islands. One of them, called Yas, now holds over 35,000 workers, mostly Indians and Pakistanis, who move around within a cloud of dust in an arid landscape from which concrete forms emerge, as yet far from their definitive look.
By October at the latest, the site should be a garden. The turquoise water of the Arabian Gulf should provide a marina and generate the environment that emerged from the imagination of Philippe Gurdjian – a Frenchman with over four decades in the world of motorsport who linked up with the government of Abu Dhabi to offer an unprecedented experience for Formula One.
"All the grandstands are covered, the pit exit is a tunnel, one of the corners goes underneath the grandstand," Cregan explained enthusiastically. "You can also run two different circuits, two races at the same time. There’s a lot of features there. In 2011, with everything on the run, we’ll have an amazing facility."
Cregan is probably not exaggerating. The Yas Marina Hotel is set to be the only one in the world with a Formula One track running through it.
The Sun Tower, covered in solar panels, is set to offer a VIP hall 60 metres above ground for its most distinguished visitors, some of whom are set to arrive from Europe aboard yachts that are up to 100 metres long.
Abu Dhabi has signed a deal to host a formula one grand
Prix for seven years. The capital of the United Arab Emirates thus goes a step further in its attempt to differentiate itself from its at times extravagant neighbour Dubai.
The over 800-metre-tall skyscrapers that emerge 120 kilometres away are matched by Abu Dhabi’s subsidiaries of La Sorbonne or the Louvre Museum and its own Guggenheim Museum. Abu Dhabi counters Dubai’s traffic-jammed streets with a seafront (Corniche) that is many kilometres long.
"The main thing here is that on November 1st we’ll have a race here. Whether it’s the deciding one for the championship or not, nobody would love it more than myself," Cregan said. "I think that this year it will be very close, as last year."
He is visibly proud of the Abu Dhabi effort many months before the race.