About Yas Marina
The Yas Marina Circuit is the venue for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. The circuit was designed by Hermann Tilke and is situated on Yas Island, about 30 minutes from the capital of the UAE, Abu Dhabi. Yas Marina is the second Formula One track in the Middle East, with the first being in Bahrain. A two-day GP2 Asia Series test was held to officially open the circuit.
The race famously starts at sunset and finishes under floodlights, creating a stunning visual transition from day to night. The track features a unique pit lane exit that passes through a tunnel under the track. The W Hotel Abu Dhabi straddles the circuit, providing a unique architectural feature.
In 2021, significant modifications were made to the layout to improve overtaking. The slow chicane before the hairpin was removed, and the complex section at the end of the back straight was replaced with a single sweeping banked corner. These changes have made the track faster and more flowing, serving as the season finale host for many years.
Yas Marina Circuit is owned by ADQ, the sovereign wealth holding of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, and operated by the Ethara Group, a merger of Flash Entertainment and Ethara announced in June 2023 that now handles the venue's commercial and race-day operations. The current F1 hosting deal signed in December 2020 runs until 2030 and involves an annual hosting fee estimated at 40 million US dollars, funded from the emirate's tourism development budget rather than from Formula One-specific ticketing revenues, which represent barely a quarter of the event's costs. Construction of the venue in 2007-2009 required draining 3.2 square kilometres of tidal flats and shipping in over 55,000 palm trees from oases across the Al Ain region to landscape the surrounding resort island; the palms are individually numbered and mapped in a groundskeeping database.