You hear Lewis Hamilton arriving before you see him. The roar of his V6 engine echoes through the passage where the circuit passes beneath a gleaming five-star hotel. A second later, Hamilton himself appears, chasing his engine noise during the first practice session for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. He steers his Mercedes through the hotel and races past the marina right next to the track.
The people on board a few sailing yachts moored at the quay are busy with other matters. Two men are putting up an awning on one of the boats. A woman puts camping chairs on the quay, around a cool box in which someone else puts bottles of beer. No one pays attention to the noisy racing cars just ahead.
Max Verstappen has a chance this weekend on the Yas Marina circuit to definitively beat Lewis Hamilton and thus become the first Dutch Formula 1 world champion. Abu Dhabi provides this denouement with a backdrop full of contrasts. The final act in the play Hamilton versus Verstappen, already an iconic moment in F1 history, takes place in a place where you can taste little real passion for the sport. And behind the scenes, in the world of drivers and their racing teams, it is business as usual but at the same time there is the tension that such a fraught all-or-nothing race entails.
Vacuum cleaner
On the podium where the winner receives his trophy on Sunday, a cleaning lady is busy with a vacuum cleaner on Thursday afternoon. A few meters below, in the pit lane, it is teeming with fans. They look at the garages, where members of the teams are building their cars. The crowds are greatest at Verstappen and Hamilton. A cameraman making a promo video for the track divides the supporters into two camps, and has them cheer on their favourite. “Go Max!”, shouted dozens of Verstappen fans on command.
Also read: It has never been so exciting in Abu Dahbi, where the battle for the Formula 1 world title is being decided for the fourth time
Enthusiasm enough with the audience in the pits. Still, in terms of atmosphere, Yas Marina is no match for the circuits in Australia, Brazil and Japan, countries that hosted the final F1 race of the season before Abu Dhabi secured that coveted spot on the calendar in 2009 thanks to tens of millions of dollars.
The races in Australia, Japan, Brazil and other (mostly European) countries with a great motorsport tradition look like music festivals. Tens of thousands of fans flock around the circuits. The many enthusiasts who live in these countries can for relatively little money (tickets for three days start at about 170 euros) to a grand prix at an acceptable distance from their home. Monza sees red every year from the Ferrari fanatics, Silverstone has been Hamilton country for years.
In Abu Dhabi, the picture is different on Friday. During the two free practice sessions, in which the drivers get used to the circuit and can adjust their car accordingly, three quarters of the sixty thousand white seats in the five stands are empty. About five thousand Dutch supporters have traveled to Yas Marina, much more than usual – but there is no question of an orange sea, such as in Zandvoort.
The poor turnout is not surprising. In Abu Dhabi, relatively few people follow Formula 1 – while 85 percent of the population also consists of guest workers who cannot afford the tickets. Even for fans from elsewhere, the tickets are expensive: three days in the stands will cost at least 600 euros. Excluding flight and accommodation.
Clinical
If you walk around the Yas Marina circuit, you will notice something else: the clinical appearance of the racing complex, especially in comparison with popular circuits such as Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium. The designers of that track had to make do with the landscape as it was decades ago. This makes Spa a gentle course through the hills of the Ardennes. Spectators clamber through narrow paths along the forest edge to their pitches on grassy knolls, where they are huddled among thousands of others, often in the rain, but usually with enough spectacle on the track to warm themselves up.
Yas Marina couldn’t be more different from that. It is located on Yas Island, an artificial island about the same size as Schiphol. The piece of land, where all kinds of amusement parks and shopping centers have also been built, is as flat as an A4. When construction of the track began in 2007, it was basically a blank canvas. As is often the case with prestige projects in Gulf States, ‘big, bigger, biggest’ was the guiding principle in filling it out.
Man-made hills, a section where the track runs through a kind of stadium, an underground pit exit, the marina with space for 277 boats – Yas Marina got it all. For example, Abu Dhabi built a circuit for 1 billion dollars that is actually mainly a symbol of the growing gap between Formula 1 and the ordinary fan.
Smell of hot rubber
In the paddock, the closed area behind the pits where only drivers, team members and support staff are allowed, it looks the same as usual on Friday. On the terraces in front of the clay-colored team shelters behind the pit boxes, a few people are sitting in the shade. Familiars from around the world greet each other, shake hands. Mechanics of Verstappen’s Red Bull team push carts with used racing tires in front of them. The smell of hot rubber wafts past.
Sometimes it suddenly becomes clear that this is no ordinary race weekend – that a nerve-racking championship fight is being decided here.
Towards the end of the first free practice session, a selfie fighter waits with his phone at the ready at the exit of the Mercedes pit for Lewis Hamilton. He drips when within a few minutes camera crews from all available TV channels arrive and line up right in front of him at the back doors of Mercedes and Red Bull. After fifteen minutes Hamilton and Verstappen come out, one right after the other. They step into the hospitality units of their teams without saying a word.
For the public it is better if Max wins. It’s time for something different
Jackie Stewart triple world champion
Most of the journalists gathered would probably have preferred to ask the two drivers whether they will keep things tidy on the track on Sunday. Last week, Verstappen and Hamilton had some controversial clashes in Saudi Arabia, not for the first time this season.
What does Damon Hill, the 1996 World Champion, think who lost the title two years earlier after being rammed out of the deciding race by rival Michael Schumacher? “There is no doubt about Max’s incredible level,” said the Briton, who will be walking around the paddock on Friday as a TV presenter. “I don’t think he needs elbows to win.”
If Verstappen keeps Hamilton from his unparalleled eighth championship, it will be good for Formula 1, says 1997 world champion Jacques Villeneuve. “If Max wins, Lewis won’t hold all the records. Then he’ll keep going for it for years to come. Why would he do that when he owns all the records?”
Jackie Stewart (82), three-time world champion in the sixties and seventies, is also in Abu Dhabi. He fought the necessary duels in his time, but always fair, because drivers wanted to avoid accidents at all costs during that dangerous time. Stewart secretly hopes for a triumph from Verstappen. After years of Hamilton dominance, the sport “is ready for something different,” he says. “Mercedes did a great job, but for the public it’s better if Max wins.”
The most important thing is that Verstappen prevents Hamilton and he from colliding again, Stewart believes. “He has to keep his cool now. Because to finish first, you have to finish first.”
E17 Seven motorsport fans about the final.
A version of this article also appeared in NRC Handelsblad on 11 December 2021
A version of this article also appeared in NRC in the morning of December 11, 2021
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