FORMULA 1 ABU DHABI GRAND PRIX

The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix is the last race of the Formula One season, three days at the Yas Marina Circuit on Yas Island, on the east coast of Abu Dhabi, in the first week of December: practice on the Friday, qualifying on the Saturday evening and the race at five on the Sunday afternoon, fifty-eight laps of 5.281 kilometres beside the marina and under a hotel. Abu Dhabi holds the right to close the season until 2030.

The race starts in daylight and finishes in the dark. The floodlights are on from the start, so that no one sees the change.

Yas Island

Plans to make a resort of Yas Island, with a race track at its centre, were announced in 2006. On 3 February 2007 Formula One came to Abu Dhabi for a free festival, and it was announced there that Abu Dhabi would have a Grand Prix from 2009.

The circuit was designed by Hermann Tilke and built by Cebarco-WCT for Aldar Properties, at a cost, by one account, of more than a billion dollars. It passes the marina and runs under the W Abu Dhabi hotel, designed by Hani Rashid and Lise Anne Couture of Asymptote Architecture, which spans the short straight between the thirteenth and fourteenth corners, its facade lit. The pit lane leaves the track through a tunnel under it, and one of the run-off areas runs beneath the West Grandstand. There are five grandstands: the Main, West, North, South and Marina. The lights, by Musco, were called the largest permanent lighting of any sports venue in the world.

The first race was set for 15 November 2009, then brought forward to 1 November, as the last of the season. It started at five in the afternoon, the first day-night race in Formula One, and every one since has been the same. Sebastian Vettel won it, for Red Bull. The drivers were divided on the track. Kimi Räikkönen liked the first few corners and not the rest, in words that cannot be printed; Nico Rosberg found every corner “unique”.

The track was changed in 2021. The chicane at the fifth and sixth corners and the hairpin at the seventh were made into one hairpin, the eleventh to the fourteenth into one banked sweep, and later corners widened. The lap is now governed by a straight of 1.2 kilometres between the fifth and sixth corners.

The Finale

Being last, the race has settled titles. In 2010 the championship was decided in Abu Dhabi for the first time, when Vettel won the race and took the title from Fernando Alonso. In 2016 Nico Rosberg finished second and won his only championship.

On 12 December 2021 Max Verstappen won his first championship here, over Lewis Hamilton, after the race director, Michael Masi, used an incorrect procedure to withdraw the safety car before the last lap. The FIA held an inquiry. Three days before that race a ten-year agreement had given Abu Dhabi the last race of the season until 2030.

In 2024 Lando Norris won here for the first time, and McLaren took the constructors’ championship for the first time since 1998. In 2025 Verstappen won the race and Norris, third, won the championship by two points, with his team-mate Oscar Piastri second.

Day into Night

The event runs from the Thursday to the Sunday, with a concert at the circuit after the racing each night, open to those holding a ticket for the Grand Prix, with places nearer the stage sold as an upgrade. On the Friday there is an official after-party at Yas Gateway Park. In local time, the first practice is at half past one on the Friday and the second at five; the last practice is at half past two on the Saturday, and qualifying at six.

The race starts at five on the Sunday. The sun sets during it, under the lights, and the season ends in the dark.

The seats are in the five grandstands, on general admission or in VIP suites and hospitality. The top of it is the Formula One Paddock Club, with House 44 inside it for all four days. Three-day and four-day tickets also give free entry across the city, and discounts.

In 2026 the race is the twenty-third and last of the season, on Sunday 6 December, after practice and qualifying on the 4th and 5th. Lewis Capaldi sings after the racing on the Thursday, Alex Warren on the Friday and Imagine Dragons on the Saturday.

What to Know

It runs over the first weekend in December: in 2026, from Thursday 3 to Sunday 6 December, the racing from the Friday. The 2027 dates have not been announced; Abu Dhabi holds the last race of the season until 2030.

Tickets are sold by the circuit, on its own site and through Ticketmaster in the Emirates, and are held in the Abu Dhabi GP app; a ticket bought from the circuit needs a matching Ticketmaster account. The Paddock Club and House 44 are sold by F1 Experiences, Formula One’s official hospitality. Hotel rooms can be added when the tickets are bought.

Smart casual. The circuit asks for “loose-fitting clothes that cover your shoulders, arms and legs”, and the Court’s version is a jacket without a tie, proper trousers and proper shoes, and no logos.

The airport is ten minutes from the circuit by taxi, and the circuit is near the highway between Abu Dhabi and Dubai. The 190 bus runs from the Abu Dhabi bus station, by Al Wahda Mall, and from Dubai the bus goes from Al Ghubaiba; the free Yas Express shuttle goes round the island from nine in the morning to nine at night. The W Abu Dhabi stands over the track.

The mistake is to leave before sunset. The race is started at five so that it runs from daylight into darkness, and the change is the point of it.

The Court

The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix is not the Court’s own. Places in the Paddock Club, or seats in the Marina Grandstand, are sought on a member’s behalf, and the Court arranges the whole of it: getting there, where to stay on Yas Island or in the city, and the table afterward. Art Basel Miami Beach closes on the same Sunday.

How one becomes a member is set out under Admission.