First pictures from Abu Dhabi

[modbaraban]

The arabs seem to be there. The flat cartoon drivers make it look funny though.

[nae]

I see james allan has a video of the track from on board

http://www.jamesallenonf1.com/

looks forgetable

[ISLAMATRON]

Looks like it would be a better track if they ran it in the opposite direction.

That pit lane exit tunnel is completely unnecessary and they didnt even make it wide enough for some side by side action... and it dumps out into the middle of a very fast corner... not well thought out at all.

They should have never incorporated a straight between 1 and 2, it should have been hard braking into 1 (hairpin), leading directly out to the off camber sweeper 3, that would have been really cool, but maybe they were worried about 1st corner pile ups.

The 15/16/17/18 corner complex looks much better on the track than it does on paper. Should be an interesting set of corners, especially in qually.

Long pit lane with not very many super fast corners so we could see a 1 stopper placing up there in the finishing order.

Definitely a KERS track, Hamilton for the win.

Looks extremely dusty.

[Scotracer]

Looks like Valencia was moved to Bahrain. Ugh.

[Paul]

Once again flatness kills all the thrill. The track screams "artificial". Too bad we are likely to see more of the same in the future.

[Mystery Steve]

Once again flatness kills all the thrill. The track screams "artificial". Too bad we are likely to see more of the same in the future.

At least it isn't as bad as the new NASCAR tracks..

Turns 5-6-7 could be interesting with a chicane followed immediately by a hairpin leading to a long straight. If you mess those up a bit, you might see some passing going into turn 8. Although turn 9 is an immediate turn in the opposite direction, so if you don't get completely by in 8, they'll likely just repass in 9. Oh well, Lewis will probably just press the magic button coming off 7 anyway and win easily.

And yeah, the pit road did look a little dirty. The sand might make tire wear and pit strategy interesting at least. Hopefully it turns out to be a good race.

[dp35]

Direct link to onboard:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikvjwBEYk50

That track looks silly, like a street course without any interesting corners/sections, too many 1st gear corners, no elevation changes, and too few high speed corners.

Intersting buildings and facilities though. Too bad they didn't spend a bit more of that money on the track itself. I guess that's what it takes to impress Bernie these days.

[Mystery Steve]

What's wrong with 1st gear corners? I like the idea of putting long straights right after a hairpin because it requires sharp execution by the driver. Ideally I would like to see a couple long sweepers as well, just to add a technical challenge for the engineers to set the car up for. This would hopefully create some disparity among the cars and make it easier for cars to at least catch each other and maybe even pass if the driver in front makes a mistake in one of the hairpins.

[King Six]

Hmm, I have to agree. There seems to be too many low speed corners and not enough high speed or even medium speed corners. I guess, it's not that bad. The pit lane exit seems interesting. But I feel they could've had less right angles and more obtuse(s)

In all essence... it's a typical modern 'street' circuit. Apart from the pit lane exit there's no elevation either. Well we got Korea in 2010 and India in 2011 as the only new circuits coming into F1 in the foreseeable future (I think), India is a street circuit too. I hope it breaks the mould...

It would be better if turns five and six didn't exist or were abit faster. You can tell they've made the track with room for improvement in mind and infact you could easily omit those two. The third sector of the track seems really boring