Last year’s GP2 runner-up and Formula 1 aspirant Bruno Senna has visited the new Abu Dhabi venue several times over the past few months and shared his thoughts about the new venue with itv.com/f1 columnist James Allen.
Senna believes the 3.45-mile circuit’s blend of long straights, slow and fast corners, blind turns and unique pit lane exit will provide an exciting challenge for the F1 drivers and teams.
He also thinks the track’s characteristics will play into the hands of the KERS-equipped teams.
Q: What do you think of the Yas Marina track?
Bruno Senna: It’s impressive, different from anything seen before.
The nearest is probably Shanghai in terms of how well planned and laid out it is, but this place is on another level. Many of the solutions of this track are interesting.
Q: Such as?
BS: Well the pit lane exit, which is a tunnel, for example. That is more than a bit interesting.
The pit speed limit line is before it so they will be racing through the tunnel.
It’s quite narrow, not as narrow as the exit in Valencia, but still narrow and it exits onto the high-speed turn three – mind you the cars exiting the pits will be going quite quickly by then.
Also something I’ve never seen before is that the run-off area for turn seven is underneath the grandstand!
Q: Any other surprises?
BS: It’s not as flat as I thought it would be. They’ve moved earth around to make some elevation changes.
This gives some really nice blind corners. There is a nice mix of corners – some fast corners and the ones around the marina are off-camber.
It will be really hard to get a good compromise on the set-up, especially the aero balance. It’s the kind of track where the car will feel really oversteery.
The majority of the corners are tight, so a good front end will be very important.
It has a very long straight, the longest in F1 at 1.2km (0.75 miles), with a first-gear corner going onto it and at the end of it.
To me this looks like a real KERS track.
As for set-up, you’d go for medium to high downforce, something like you would use at Magny-Cours.
Q: Which bits do you like the most?
BS: The first complex of corners – turns one, two and three – are really nice, fast sweeps. It’s very cool, they are blind corners and the exit of turn three is downhill.
Then turns 15 and 16 are really cool fast right-hand corners, where the wall is quite close.
Q: How is the marina? Is it more Monaco than Valencia?
BS: Yes it will be like Monaco when the boats are in there, but it’s much more modern than Monaco; the architecture is much more modern.
There are some beautiful buildings here, like the Shams Tower, and the hotel which is like a bridge over the circuit.
Q: Will it be more of a Brawn circuit or a Red Bull circuit?
BS: It’s a KERS circuit!
Q: What are your plans for next year – is there an F1 seat for you?
BS: There are opportunities for next year, more than there were for this year. I'm talking to some teams. The odds are better for next year.