Overview

Nowadays, Formula 1 has become more of an investment than a sport. In 2005, British financial investor CVC Capital Partners paid approximately one billion dollars for the rights to Formula 1. In a sport, in which top teams have an annual budget of up to 300 million dollars, you can bet that the United Arab Emirates are not far. As part of the sports investments of the Emirates (Manchester City, Paris St. Germain), the plan to build a Formula 1 racetrack in Abu Dhabi was soon developed. This became the Yas Marina Circuit – a permanent racetrack on Yas island in Abu Dhabi that was finished in October 2009. On the 1st November 2009, the first Formula 1 race on the Yas Marina Circuit for the Price of Abu Dhabi took place. However, the Yas Marina Circuit is a truly unique racetrack. It is the most unusual, modern and expensive racetrack that has ever been built.

Abu Dhabi

Abu Dhabi is the largest emirate of the United Arab Emirates governed by Sheikh Chalifa bin Zayid Al Nahyan, the current emir. Its capital of Abu Dhabi is called Abu Dhabi as well and capital of the emirates at the same time. With global investments of more than one billion dollars, Abu Dhabi is the wealthiest of the emirates. Abu Dhabi further has the third highest GDP of the world. Basis of this immense prosperity of the emirates is the partial nationalisation of oil deposits from 1974. Today, the emirate owns more than 10% of the worlds oil deposits. In the face of the finite nature of natural resources, Abu Dhabi has been trying to establish its financial sustainability since the 2000s. It succeeded insofar as the oil sector has grown by 3.2% since 2014 while the non-oil-based economy has achieved a growth of 7.4%. Following the real estate crisis, there was a deep cut in 2009 that especially affected the construction industry which, however, seems to be recovering. Should all planned construction projects be realised by 2020, the construction industry of Abu Dhabi will have achieved an expected growth of 10%. Besides the state-owned investment fund – the largest independent fund world-wide with an investment volume of 875 billion dollars that makes investments at home and abroad – Abu Dhabi has been trying to establish a sustainable economic sector particularly with regard to tourism. This includes giant skyscrapers, luxurious hotels and entertaining recreational options. With this in mind, the Yas Marina Circuit has a dual function for the emirate. On one hand, the Yas Marina Circuit is supposed to motivate tourists to visit Abu Dhabi. On the other hand, and most importantly, however, the racetrack functions as a general image gain of the entire emirate and boosts the tourism sector in general.

Hermann Tilke

The Yas Marina Circuit was constructed by the architecture firm Tilke Ingenieure & Architekten in Aachen under the management of Hermann Tilke. Tilke is considered the most popular and important racetrack architect of modern times and is responsible for some of the most outstanding racetracks worldwide including the Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia, the Bahrain International Circuit in Bahrain and the Shanghai International Circuit in China. However, Tilkes reputation within the racing scene is not flawless as his racetracks are partially considered as slow and hard to overhaul. Tilke initially won the tender for a much smaller and more inconspicuous racetrack in Abu Dhabi that was not supposed to be used for Formula 1 races. Only subsequent negotiations of the emirates with Bernie Ecclestone, CEO of Formula 1, necessitated the construction of a permanent exceptional racetrack. During all this, Tilke was in the favourable position of not having to conform to any circumstances as the Yas island was in a completely natural and undeveloped state until then.

Architectural History

The construction of the Yas Marina Circuit was carried out by construction company Cebargo-WCT WLL between May 2007 and October 2009 which is an astoundingly short period of time for a project this large. A crucial factor to achieve this was the fact that no subsequent changes were necessary and even the costs did not have to be recalculated. As Formula 1 races on the Yas Marina Circuit are conducted at night, a permanent lighting system for the illumination of the whole racetrack was needed. This lighting system was the courtesy of the American company Musco Lighting. The Yas Marina Circuit is one of the largest lighting projects in the history of racing. Further, a special asphalt was needed that could be driven on throughout the whole year – at temperatures around 45° Celsius – and at the same time was supposed to offer enough grip during moderate temperature seasons. The special grip was made in England and then delivered to Abu Dhabi by ship. During the whole construction period, up to 120 construction engineers and 50,000 workers were working on the Yas Marina Circuit that cost 893 million Euros in total.

Characteristics of the Yas Marina Circuit

The permanent racetrack lighting that enables a 24 hours utilization is not the only special feature of the Yas Marina Circuit. It is the only permanent racetrack with a marina from which the hustle and bustle of the track can be witnessed. On top of that, it features the Yas Viceroy Abu Dhabi Hotel, planned by the architects Hani Rashid and Lise-Anne Coutire from New York. The hotel is divided into two buildings that are connected by a bridge. The bridge is crossing the racetrack and lends the area of the Yas Marina Circuit – the most expensive and exceptional racetrack of the world - its unique silhouette.