Yas Marina Circuit To Be Modified

Today, the Yas Marina Circuit, home of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, announced that it is making modifications to the track. The change will be ready in time for the Grand Prix, happening as the final race of the season between 10-12th December this year.

The aim of these changes is to improve overtaking at the circuit, creating a faster track with opportunities for 'wheel to wheel racing'. The new track is going to look like this:

The changes being made are as follows:

• Elimination of the chicane and widening the hairpin at Turn 7

• Removal of the four sharp corners at Turns 11, 12, 13 and 14, replacing them with one long banked turn

• Opening up the radius of four corners (Turns 17, 18, 19 and 20), creating a faster flowing section of the track.

For reference, this is the current track layout:

McLaren driver Daniel Ricciardo, driving for Renault at the time, had commented on the current layout at the end of last season, saying:

'...maybe we could play around with the layout. I know there’s a few alternatives maybe around here because unfortunately on Sunday, it’s tricky... It’s sometimes a bit grim from an entertainment point of view.

You can see a direct comparison of the old and new track here:

They have clearly taken on the feedback from fans and drivers. This was confirmed by the acting CEO of Abu Dhabi Motorsport management, Saif Al Noaimi, had this to say regarding the modifications:

“We’ve been listening to our spectators, the fans, the drivers, F1 and the FIA and we’ve been working on making some changes, exciting changes, this year to the layout of the track..... The objective ultimately is to create more opportunities for close wheel-to-wheel racing.... We want to create more overtaking opportunities and to overall create a faster-flowing race track, given the current rules of the cars.... So we are really looking forward to seeing some overtaking and action, and hopefully the championship will come down to the wire and be determined here.”

The track modifications have had the stamp of approval two-time World Champion Fernando Alonso. When asked at the Styrian GP Press conference today, he said:

"I’m happy with the idea, I think it’s going to better and at least it’s going to be different for all of us so at least that’s the first of joy you know, when you go into a Free Practice and you have a new layout, there are always some things that you try and it’s good. And the second [positive], it should be better for overtaking so why not?

Have a look at this sneak peak uploaded by the F1 and the track themselves:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67zU1CQv1Ew

We are very excited to see what these changes will do for the racing at this years Abu Dhabi Grand Prix!