Faster than a speeding bullet, flashier than a locomotive, and able to burst strong eardrums with a single rev: the blazing, blink-and-you’ll-miss-them wheels are back for another thrilling November weekend in Abu Dhabi – and tickets are on sale now.
Are you expecting an impact on the turnout because the race isn’t the finale?
Not at all, we sold out our first and second years; we’re hoping to sell out our third year. The third year is usually a hard one though.
Why’s that?
The attraction and novelty helps maximise sales in year one, and we were delighted to sell out again in year two. Our target is selling out in year three, but we’ll just have to wait and see. In year one, we didn’t have the decider; the championship was decided before it got here. But that didn’t impact interest in the race at all. So I honestly don’t think that not having the final race is going to impact tickets this year.
Do you get the bulk of tickets sold early on?
It’s usually a big spike to start with – we have a 20 per cent discount until May 31 on grandstand tickets, so anyone who wants to come with friends and family will be well-advised to buy them now. That usually causes a spike; the first month sees half the tickets gone. Then they sell steadily throughout the summer, and, typically, we sell out a week or so before the event.
Do you think the turbulence with the Bahrain GP will affect the amount of people coming to our race?
Some people have already decided to come to our race instead of Bahrain, they’ve already been in touch with us; some of the people who had booked their tickets to Bahrain have re-booked their tickets to us.
There are a lot of new rules in the sport this year – the first couple of races have been pretty exciting…
It’s been very exciting, I was on holiday that day, and I watched it from start to finish.
We snuck it in while working. Abu Dhabi’s been criticised in the past for being a bit boring, do you think it’s going to be more interesting this year with the new rules?
A lot of the criticism that’s been levelled has had more to do with the nature of F1 car design and track design; nevertheless the reintroduction of KERS, the new Pirelli tires, and variable wings have changed the races thus far, and I expect will continue to do so. Having said that, we have announced that we’re planning on making a few changes ourselves.
Yes we heard, can you tell us a bit more about that?
Can’t be very specific about that yet because we haven’t decided on everything. But what we wanted to do is make changes to the track to allow motorcycle racing to take place; I’m a keen motorcyclist myself and there are just some areas that aren’t safe enough for a rider who might fall off. A crashing car and a crashing motorcycle have very different requirements. We knew we would have to make changes to accommodate bike racing, and we thought that while we were at it we should consult with some F1 drivers and F1 teams and see what changes we could make for the F1 spectacle. The changes are planned for this summer and, although the final decisions haven’t been made yet, we’re likely to see changes that help enhance the overtaking.
So are these minor tweaks, or layout changes?
It would involve some layout change because a minor tweak wouldn’t be sufficient as far as the bike racing is concerned. So I think it will involve – in two or three places around the track – an element of layout change. Not affecting the overall race track in any significant way, but more the nature of some corners, perhaps to allow cars to have slightly better overtaking opportunities.
And in terms of the overall entertainment?
There will be concerts organised by Flash Entertainment – and, as usual, those are still under wraps. For the other range of entertainment, we’ll be changing some of it to make it even more interesting than previous years, so the off-track entertainment will be as good as the on-track.
Last year you had Kartzone open, will you have anything new this year?
We’ll still have that open, and Ferrari World will obviously be running, but we won’t be launching any new racing attractions. We’re going for bigger and better – the Grand Prix has become an established social event in the UAE. And, hopefully, we’ll still attract the serious fans and have a fabulous race, even if it’s not the last race.
November 11, 12 & 13. Grandstand tickets Dhs1,800 for two days and Dhs2,000 for three days (Dhs1,440 and Dhs1,600 until May 31). Premium ‘Category 1’ tickets Dhs4,250, Paddock Club tickets start at Dhs16,900. Call 800 927, www.yasmarinacircuit.ae
