Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
Discussion
I went to the first one. It was much, much better than Silverstone (the only other GP I have attended live) live as you are significantly closer to action and don't have to worry about passing out due to hypothermia while you're there.
We sat in the 3rd row from the front in the South Grandstand (at turn 11). I would hazard a guess that we were maybe 40' from the cars. There was a massive TV opposite us so it was easy to follow the race and, importantly, it was shaded all afternoon / evening so, whilst still being very warm, sunburn wasn't an issue. From there, we could see the cars coming flat out down the curved straight, braking and overtaking through the chicane and then disappearing off under the hotel. The whole stand was on its feet cheering as Button (in the Brawn) was hunting down Webber over the course of 5 or 6 laps towards the end of the race and pulled a very late brake to try and pass him down the outside into the yacht club complex.
Access to and from the circuit was excellent, as the car parks empty straight out onto Sheikh Zayed Highway.
It's a bit of a trot from the car parks to the Grandstands, but no more than a 10 / 15 minute walk.
Food was plentiful, tasty and reasonably priced.
As it's a dry state, you can't buy a drink from outside bar stands round the circuit, but underneath the South Grandstand was a massive bar and marquee where the booze was flowing freely.
All in all, I had a thoroughly enjoyable weekend and would wholeheartedly recommend it. It may not be quite as exciting as some of the traditional circuits on TV, but live, that makes no difference at all. The benefit of it being evening time is that you can get on with stuff during the day (I had to help my sister and BiL do some DIY on their house in the morning - a small price to pay for being given a ticket by him for the GP).
We sat in the 3rd row from the front in the South Grandstand (at turn 11). I would hazard a guess that we were maybe 40' from the cars. There was a massive TV opposite us so it was easy to follow the race and, importantly, it was shaded all afternoon / evening so, whilst still being very warm, sunburn wasn't an issue. From there, we could see the cars coming flat out down the curved straight, braking and overtaking through the chicane and then disappearing off under the hotel. The whole stand was on its feet cheering as Button (in the Brawn) was hunting down Webber over the course of 5 or 6 laps towards the end of the race and pulled a very late brake to try and pass him down the outside into the yacht club complex.
Access to and from the circuit was excellent, as the car parks empty straight out onto Sheikh Zayed Highway.
It's a bit of a trot from the car parks to the Grandstands, but no more than a 10 / 15 minute walk.
Food was plentiful, tasty and reasonably priced.
As it's a dry state, you can't buy a drink from outside bar stands round the circuit, but underneath the South Grandstand was a massive bar and marquee where the booze was flowing freely.
All in all, I had a thoroughly enjoyable weekend and would wholeheartedly recommend it. It may not be quite as exciting as some of the traditional circuits on TV, but live, that makes no difference at all. The benefit of it being evening time is that you can get on with stuff during the day (I had to help my sister and BiL do some DIY on their house in the morning - a small price to pay for being given a ticket by him for the GP).
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