The world of motor-racing rolls onto the next stage in the season, and the amount of races is rapidly running out as the year draws ever closer to its conclusion. This weekend marks the penultimate GP of the year, in the darkness of Abu-Dhabi an environment drawn straight from the annuls of the future, a world of steel and lights - cascading structures in coated in clinical white. It's all very Aperture Science minus the cake which is a lie and an crazed yet hilarious mechanical AI trying to kill you. That said F1 with portal would certainly be a sight to see, nothing like messing with the fabric of the universe to make for some good racing.
But - Aperture Science Hand-held Portal Devices aside - the Yas Marina is a massive spectacle taking the globalisation into a whole new scale. With a hotel spanning the circuit - a la the Grand Hotel in Monaco - but this one comes with something a little extra, a cocoon of colour changing lights coat the structure in a web of intrigue and uniqueness. Filling the skyline with the dynamic illumination as the race sees the transition from the dusky evening into the blackened void of night, coming to a crescendo under the full power of the mechanical lights and a blanket of stars.
The Track
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| Credit to the FIA for the diagram |
One of Tilke's newest inventions along with South Korea and the Indian track we saw last time out - but the scale and the grandeur of this facility is staggering. However having a bunch of pretty buildings extracted from the world of tomorrow, doesn't always mean the ribbon of tarmac around them is any good. In this case the layout is one of mixed opinions - it has some strong attributes and offers the potential for some good racing. With sections designed for overtaking, long straights leading into heavy breaking areas but as a result the flow is compromised, and then hampered further by the track negotiating the Marina section - see Korea that's how it is supposed to be done.
The final section of the lap is a little unimaginative in terms of corner design and arrangement - and if it wasn't for the scenery you'd forget where you were. As the corners are all the same running around the water's edge where all the posh folk park their boats. What is very innovative on the other hand is the pit lane exit, a tunnel underneath the first corner leads the cars back out onto the track, crossing from one side of the circuit to the other. To make things a little more interesting, it is a downhill run with no speed limit into the tunnel - yet no-one in any of the support races I've seen here has managed to bin it into the barriers underneath the track. That's another thing Korea should take note of - infinitely better then their system.
What this track also seems to have in abundance is blue paint - the run-off is a wash with the stuff, except the area underneath the grandstands in turn 8 where red stripes are used. Meeting with the modern convention of putting tarmac space everywhere the concept of grass and gravel a long gone historic concept only present in the traditional relics of motorsport. Agreed the tarmac stops cars rolling over and disintegrating but there needs to be some form of border between the track and the extra space to punish mistakes and stop drivers running wide everywhere.
But enough of me ranting on about theoretical portal guns and magical space age buildings it is time to unleash this week's video - yes I got to make one this time as I do have a version of the track at my disposal and a rather good one too. Not that it helped my FPS with all those futuristic structures and then the night level textures but that aside here is the blogmobile's most recent outing - and yes I did mess up the title sequence up a little. I thought I'd repaired it but the video went out with the default settings on instead of the traditional template in place. However I did manage to capture one of my fastest laps which is a rarity so without more blabbering on here is Abu Dhabi in video form.
What to expect
Traditionally, in the narrowest sense of the term considering how recently Abu-Dhabi entered the calendar, the track has been dominated by Red Bull - but those were both in years where they were fighting to claim the title and pushing development to the end of the season. This time the titles are all said and done so the door might swing open for the rest of the division one competitors, but Ferrari have been slipping back in recent races so McLaren look like the only ones who can really capitalise on Red Bull easing off the pedal.
Further back on the grid, Mercedes are taking over where Renault Squadron left off running in team formation behind the top division all by themselves. While the squadron are getting more in touch with the mid-field falling prey to the likes of Torro Rosso and Force India in an intensifying mid-field battle. Struggling to claim 5th place in the constructors championship, to be best of the division two teams and take all the bonuses that come with it.
Things are less successful at the other end of the mid-pack, Williams will more than likely be competing with Sauber to keep off the back of the division and the shameful relegation position in Q1. The two teams have encountered varying fortunes throughout the season - Sauber falling backwards as development has stalled while Williams have been perpetually towards the back with occasional flashes of speed and competitiveness.
While on the final three rows of the grid Lotus will imaginably be in a world of their own a long way ahead of the other two teams but not close enough to the mid-field in qualifying. Behind them both Virgin Racing and HRT will be as close as they were in India - where HRT managed to be off the final row, before both cars took penalties. So even at the very bottom of the pack there is something to race for as the final teams are challenging to be the leader of division three in 10th place in the constructors.
KERS and DRS
The circuit is perfectly set up to incorporate a dual DRS implementation and that is precisely what is on the cards this weekend taking advantage of the two significant straights the track has to offer. The first of the sections is located on the long back straight links the hairpin at turn 7 with the chicane at turns 8/9 - the only problem with this is that the straight has a rather odd feature. It shifts to the left towards the end where the centre of the track suddenly becomes the outside edge
As for the second of the two DRS sections - that is positioned after the turn 8/9 chicane and is active through the curved straight on the run down to T11. The radius of the curve at 10 won't be a problem for the activation of the system - no-one will be spinning into the fence backwards, but it may hinder the effectiveness of the system, depending on the degree of the speed advantage it could make it easier to defend against. What will be most interesting is that the two zones are very close to each other so a move made in the first sector can be countered in the second one which can add another dimension to the racing on Sunday
Then there is KERs which here in a circuit with several short runs between corners there could be opportunities for innovative overtaking in the marina section. But the system does offer diminishing returns at higher speeds so is most effective on the exit of the slower corners - which lead onto the DRS powered straights so KERs can be used to bring the car closer into position on the car in front before deploying the DRS system to complete the pass.
Overall Yas Marina is more of a spectacle than a race full of excitement and drama, however this year with the tyre degradation and the KERs/DRS combination things could be rather different indeed, and of course this time Abu-Dhabi isn't the final race of the season as it has been on it's previous running. So the setting will be a little different, knowing there is still something to play for in Brazil for the mid-field teams.
However this weekend the blogging schedule will be a little askew based on things happening out there in the real world - realising now that pointing at the window really is of no help at all - considering this is just a bunch of text on a screen. But there is a rather important matter of rehearsals and set preparation to be conducted here so viewing of the sessions will be delayed and naturally that will propagate down into the release of the reports. So you are going to have to bear with me on that one.
But whenever you get to see the racing this weekend, here's hoping we can bring this season to a close with a pair of perfect race starting this weekend in the middle east on the Yas Marina Circuit.
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