It is coming up to midnight and F1’s first day in Abu Dhabi is at an end. How has it been? Well, the place is amazing. We had heard all the stories about this astonishing facility and it seems to live up to them. It is quite extraordinary. It is easy to say that it is a white elephant created by oil rich sheikhs looking for things to spend their money on, but that misses the point entirely. When one studies in depth what they are doing here in Abu Dhabi, one understands that the Grand Prix is the lift off point for a brave and extraordinary new world that is being planned. I could go into huge detail about the plans as I have written several very lengthy articles on this subject both in The Paddock magazine and in Grand Prix +, but the key point is that they are going to spend $100bn here on creating a new high-end international tourist destination. They are going to have their own Louvre (and I am not kidding). They are going to have a Guggenheim. There are so many projects that it is hard to take them all in. But this is not flashy Dubai where the whole thing folded up when the recession hit and debts went out of control. In Abu Dhabi they do not have to borrow money and the development is tightly controlled to make sure that they get what they want.
The aim is to create industries that will be sustainable long after the oil and gas runs out. It is a mighty undertaking and one can only admire the vision of the late Sheikh Zayed, who began building up Abu Dhabi in the 1960s, and his son, the current emir Sheikh Khalifa, who has accelerated development since the came to power in 2004. This is social engineering on mammoth scale and while one can be impressed by the race track, it is worth taking off the F1 blinkers and marvelling at the place. It is so nice to see a developing country with natural resources, investing for the future rather than seeing the rulers squirrelling the money away in Swiss banks as all too often happens around the world.
I find it inspiring.
Sure, the race track is not perfect. There are small things that new circuits often suffer but the people here are keen that the F1 community loves Abu Dhabi and thus far I think it is fair to say that they have succeeded.
I guess there was a time when people laughed at those who strove to build Las Vegas into a major holiday resort. It seemed such an unlikely idea and yet today, Vegas is one of the foremost tourist destinations in the world. It took vision, imagination and money to do that. It may not be your thing but you have to salute them for having done it.
Similarly we should salute the achievement of Abu Dhabi and support them as they push on with the plans.
joeblogsf1 
However, I agree on Las Vegas beeing perfectly marketed, I refuse to believe that it is a coincidence that it apperas in so many Hollywood movies. Having a F1 race can very well have the same effect.
One thing always confuses me about this tourism for the future strategy. With declining oil ressources travel is very likely to become more and more expensive, so who will be able to travel to places like Yas Marinas?
It’s possibly worth removing the F1 blinkers a little more to take-in the slave labour aspect of bangladeshi and southern Indian workers sandbagged with work for a pittance to create a paradise that they will never use, their families often waiting for money that never arrives and loved breadwinners who frequently die on the job.
Jonno,
This is a good point. I am sure that there are extreme cases that are written about in newspapers. I stayed in the apartment of a friend who is employed by one of the big companies out here to monitor the way in which their construction workers are treated and to make sure that their working conditions are acceptable. I know that Aldar, who built this place, have gone out of their way to not only treat the workers better, but also be seen to be doing so. The economic realities nonetheless exist: people from south Asia come to the Gulf for the money because it is a better option than staying at home and scraping a living there. They see it is an opportunity. It is something that people do in order to advance themselves and their families. If there were no mega-projects there would be no labourers. In the history of the world there have long been migrant workers who have gone to where the work exists. This is how all the developed nations of the world built railway networks etc. A pal of mine from England went to work in the mines in Alaska when he was in his twenties because he wanted to make a lot of money in a hurry. It was not good for his health but he DID make a lot of money and as a result was able to buy himself land on which he has since built himself a successful water park. I accept that there are some abuses, but who reports the success stories?
Let’s put it this way: Abu Dhabi race is likely to be a destination for upper middle class. How much would it cost me to stay there for 3 nights+race tickets+plane tickets+food? A small fortune, that’s for sure.
The aim of this track is to please the (rich) people who are directly there. Will it be as entertaining for tv viewers? Remains to be seen. The Middle East countries got lucky with oil resources and are simply showboating. We are paying for their race tracks. If the price of oil hadn’t jumped (or artificially pushed) to 150$ a barrel they’d be nowhere. That’s crime against motorists around the world.
Joe –
Is there a trap door in the pit lane tunnel as some have reported or is that BS?
Steve,
I didn’t see one
Let’s hope they have spent a little bit of that $100,000,000,000 on preventing the track from getting so dusty that dust off the racing line turns their grand prix into a procession.
We are supposed to salute the vision that has created such spectacular facilities at all the new circuits that Bernie has bought into on spec in recent years, but the one common feature they all seem to share is that the tracks have predictable flaws that spoil the racing. Still, as long as the hospitality suites are spectacular, does Bernie care if the racing is dull?
Fingers crossed that I am proved wrong this time!
Very nice article Joe. Good to hear that your have arrived in Abu Dhabi and that things are going well for you and the rest of the F1 crowd. I also really like your mention of Las Vegas, as many people around my age (23) and even older don’t remember that it was once just another frontier town in the desert that started out to the current status with just one resort.
But I must say that, while you point out that the F1 community loves Abu Dhabi, it appears to me that the F1 circuis loves pretty much every new GP where the locals shell out megabucks for the most lavish appointments and then some. I agree with everyting you write about the development in Abu Dhabi and it is all fantastic, but if this is the future of F1, what for the future of races in Europe, and….dare I say it….a return to the big, bad, USA in the future?
I hate to sound like a broken record, but I look more and more at MotoGP…a World Championship that still visits Asia, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East, yet also stops in America not once but twice, and keeps a healthy number of events in Western Europe. To me, that is what a top-flight international motorsports series should strive to be.
Another very interesting article. So much so that I am tempted to book a trip for next year. Let’s hope they subsidise the hotel prices like they do in Vegas which is a cheap place for a holiday if you don’t gamble.
I am also glad the Abu Dhabi GP track is a proper facility and not an afterthought in the hotel car park!
“It is a mighty undertaking …”
From a purely sporting viewpoint, let’s hope the track allows some mighty overtaking too.
FYI, I’m running a sweepstake on which will be the first tabloid to use the headline “Abu-Dhabi-Do!”
“Is there a trap door in the pit lane tunnel as some have reported or is that BS?”
It was part of the original spec, but since Ron and Flavio have been dealt with by other methods, Max rang up the builders and cancelled it.
@Steve
There is a ‘trapdoor’ or rather a removeable section in the side wall of the pit exit tunnel to allow a car to be removed if necessary.
I am in Dubai now for the grand prix. And I have to say it’s been a remarkable experience so far. From our viewpoint (South Grand Stand) we have a great view 4-5 corners, the support pit straightaway and the harbor. Apparently all grandstands have viewpoints of 30-40% of the race track which is incredible. The concerts they’ve hosted after each race have been awesome as well (didn’t make it to Beyonce but saw Jamiroqui and will see Kings of Leon and Aerosmith). They do need to do something about their silly no videocamera policy… Anyway, I’ve only been to the Canadian GP in 2007, and this track and trip rivals it in overall experience.
F1 races are definitely expensive, and we were lucky to have friends in Dubai to host us and travel with us to the race (for the first time). It definitely helped save about $1k or more if we had to rent space in a house or apartment or get a hotel.
Joe, thanks for your timely response and your excellent, incisive and most importantly affordable journalism.
I too stayed at a friend’s luxury apartments in Dubai; he is likewise staying away to work beneath his potential for a wedge of cash. His concierge in the building was an educated Goan man who did a hundred hour a week shift for about £45. He has to share a grubby living space and hasn’t seen his two pre-teen children for nearly three years. He is, however, clean and does light work unlike the serried ranks of builders.
I know this seems an impossible subject to deal with, but we are building an entertainment here not a railroad and Alaska is, politically,a world away from Abu Dhabi. Behind the glare of the lights is an underclass which could be helped to equalise by setting a small benevolent precedent.
It seems, to me , to be economic racism and that that’s just another dark facet to that entertainment to which a lot of us are hooked, free at the point of sale.