© Red Bull Content PoolPreviously At The Abu Dhabi Grand PrixThe Yas Marina Circuit, more than any other, has helped define the team that we are.
Championshipshavebeenwoninthemostextremecircumstances,we’vepulledoffvictoriesagainsttheoddsandsomeotherresultsthatarelessnoticeablebutperhapsjustassignificant.
The Yas Marina Circuit sits on Yas Island just outside the city of Abu Dhabi, which is often thought to be a relaxing getaway, though in our experience it’s anything but. Yas Island was conceived as a vast leisure zone, with theme parks, hotels, fine dining, concert venues, retail outlets and, of course, the eponymous marina. YMC sits at the heart of that: it has a drag strip, it has a kick-ass go-kart circuit and it has an absolute beast of a race track. We’ve had some memorable nights at Yas.
The track opened in 2009 and instantly set the gold standard for circuit facilities. Since then, other tracks have reached that benchmark but nowhere’s really gone past it: YMC has the best garages and hospitality facilities… but it also has a tight paddock backing on to the marina. In an era where many circuits have gone for the gargantuan paddock (Las Vegas last week being a prime example), the narrow confines of Abu Dhabi provide a little more shade – but a lot more atmosphere. It’s become a great venue for a season finale – and a fine place to race when there’s something on the line.
Racing here is a spectacle, because overtaking is difficult but not impossible, and the grand prix is usually right on the cusp between one and two stops. The circuit was tweaked in 2021 to provide more overtaking potential, losing a couple of slow corners, gaining three laps and therefore changing the challenge slightly – but only slightly. This is still a circuit with three distinct sectors: fast corners through the first, long straights in the second, and a twisty, low-speed run around the marina to finish. It’s a place where set-up compromises have to be made – and not everyone makes the same compromises. In essence, it’s set-up for an intriguing grand prix.
The inaugural Abu Dhabi Grand Prix was surrounded by what felt like a lot of razzmatazz – but after Las Vegas, anything else now seems pretty tame. While we’d already had a couple of night races in Singapore, Abu Dhabi was premiering the new concept of the Day/Night race, with the race starting in late afternoon and the sun already sinking behind the West Grandstand. Gradually, the lights take hold and the race finishes in darkness. We got our Abu Dhabi campaign off to the best possible start, with a 1-2 finish. It was made a little easier with Lewis Hamilton having a DNF with brake failure, but it meant we went into the winter having won the final three rounds. Momentum was with us. The team hadn’t planned an end-of-season party but a 1-2 finish demanded the occasion be marked – and thus our first winning season concluded with everyone on the race team sitting around a swimming pool, toasting the dawn…and thinking about what we might do in 2010.
2009 - Off To A Strong Start© Red Bull Content Pool
We’ve twice won the Drivers’ Championship in Abu Dhabi, and its honestly a coin toss to pick which one was more tense – but 2010 shades it because it was the slow burn across the race. A week previous, we’d collected our first title, the 2010 Constructors’ Championship, in Brazil, but heading to Yas, there were still four drivers in with a shot at the title. McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton was mathematically in contention on 222; Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso was the favourite, leading with 246. Mark (238) and Seb (231) were sandwiched between. Alonso could afford to finish second to Mark, but not third – so our best chance of bagging a title was for Mark to lead Seb over the line in a 1-2 finish.
No-one really foresaw the race going down the way it did. Seb did everything right: qualifying on pole and winning from the front – but Mark and Fernando were stalking each other. Mark pitted early, Fernando followed him in a few laps later, but both got stuck in traffic and found overtaking impossible. Seb, meanwhile, went long, stayed in front of the pack and beat Hamilton by a comfortable 10 seconds. Fernando and Mark endured a torrid race, finishing seventh and eighth respectively. Seb hadn’t led the Drivers’ Championship at any point during the season, except at the final chequered flag.
2010 - Just You Wait Sunshine© Red Bull Content Pool
2012-AVeryImportantPodium
Success at the top of the field tends to be measured in victories – but it isn’t always so. In 2012, Seb crossed the line third, but celebrated like a victory, because that’s what it felt like. 2012 was a hard-fought season: Ferrari, Mercedes, Lotus, Williams, McLaren and ourselves were all race winners and going to Yas, unusually, with two more races to follow, Seb was locked in a titanic battle with Fernando Alonso for the title. His championship aspirations took a blow when he was relegated to the back of the grid after his RB8 was short-fuelled and stopped out on the circuit during qualifying. The team opted to make set-up changes and start him from the pit-lane, whereupon he battled back through the field. It wasn’t the cleanest of evenings for the reigning World Champion: he had a couple of bumps and scrapes on his way through, used more front wings than was considered conventional, and took out a brake marker board for good measure. This is the race in which Kimi Räikkönen knew what he was doing… but by finishing just behind the Finn and Alonso, Seb came away with his lead in the championship intact, heading for a climatic double-header in Austin and Brazil…
2012 - A Very Important Podium© Red Bull Content Pool
If 2012 was marginal and dramatic, then 2013 really wasn’t. The team and Sebastian went to Abu Dhabi, Round 17 of 19, with both championships already in the bag. Seb had won the previous six races and was in no mood to stop… though it was Mark who took pole, with Seb in P2. It was, however, Seb who took the lead into the first corner and disappeared into the distance, winning by 30 seconds. Mark won a tight battle with Nico Rosberg to give us another 1-2 finish. After Seb had been sanctioned for doing donuts after his championship-winning victory in India the previous week… both drivers did donuts at the chequered flag at Yas. For Seb, his seventh straight victory equalled the 60-year record of Alberto Ascari.
2013 - Records And Donuts© Red Bull Content Pool
2020-AGlimpseOfWhatWasToCome
With the retirement of the V8 engines, Red Bull Racing entered something of a fallow period in Abu Dhabi, with Mercedes taking pole and victory at the next six races at Yas Marina. It was Max who broke the cycle, though, winning the final race of the 2020 season. Max went to Abu Dhabi 16 points behind Valtteri Bottas with a chance of stealing second in the Drivers’ Championship, and duly did his best with pole position and a second victory of the truncated 2020 season… but Bottas came home second to hang on to P2. Max did, however, gain some valuable experience of winning in Abu Dhabi. That would come in quite handy a year later.
2020 - A Glimpse Of What Was To Come© Red Bull Content Pool
2021-TheOneEveryoneRemembers
Much as we would wish it to be so, tight championship deciders are not the norm in Formula One. Whenever the season throws up a battle that goes to the final round, it’s an event to be savoured… doubly-so in 2021 as Max and Lewis Hamilton went to Yas level on points – only the second time that has happened in the history of the sport. It started well for Max, who took pole… but Lewis took the lead at the start. The rest you know: for most of the race, the mood in the garage was despondent, Hamilton pulled away and looked to have it in the bag… then Nicholas Latifi crashed and changed history. Max was always going to do whatever Lewis didn’t under the Safety Car. Lewis stayed out, Max pitted for fresh tyres, the crew did a perfect job and he was back out in P2. The race might or might not restart. It did, Max used the grip, took the lead at the hairpin and then the victory. The garage went wild; our first World Championship in eight years, the start of Max’s period of dominance. It was incredibly unlucky for Lewis, but being the true sportsman, he was the first to congratulate Max. As victories go, it was just as spectacular as 2013 – but with only a single lap in the lead, there wasn't really time for the tension to mount, it just happened. In the aftermath, however, everyone spent the next few hours wandering the paddock in a state of dazed amazement.
A Dream Realised© Getty Images
Max made it three-in-a-row last year. And if 2021 was a battle royale, then 2022 felt like a coronation, with both titles already won. Max duly took pole and another victory – but attention was focussed behind as Checo and Charles Leclerc went toe-to-toe for second in the Drivers’ Championship. Checo struck first, taking P2 on the grid, but the grand prix – as is often the case at Yas Marina – required a strategic gamble. Most teams split their drivers between one and two stops. Charles went for one, Checo for two, and despite a fine final stint, the Mexican couldn’t quite catch the one-stopping Ferrari. We would have to wait another year for our first 1-2 finish in the Drivers’ Championship.
2022 - Max III© Red Bull Content Pool
