Teams of cleaners, painters, gardeners and technical experts descend on Yas Marina Circuit to prepare the track for the FORMULA 1 2018 ETIHAD AIRWAYS ABU DHABI GRAND PRIX.
Yas Marina Circuit, Abu Dhabi, UAE 19 November, 2018: As we build up to the 10th edition of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Yas Marina Circuit prepares well in advance to welcome 60,000 fans, scores of team officials plus dignitaries, drivers, celebrities and media from across the world.
To make sure everything is perfect before race weekend, an army of cleaners, painters, gardeners and technical experts descend on Yas Marina Circuit.
To make sure the Circuit is at its best, 4,500 litres of ‘Yas blue’ paint, 720 litres of ivory, 1,440 litres of red and 1,440 litres of white paint will be applied to the track by teams of painters.
The paint weighs between 2-3 tonnes, with 500 kgs alone being applied to kerbing each day.
The track’s famous ’Yas blue’ is unique to Yas Marina Circuit. Called pantone 321, the colour was chosen as it closely resembles the blue seas of the Arabian Gulf. The team tasked with painting the track’s distinctive white edging will have to cover a total of 26 kilometres. These are painted four times, which requires 450 litres of white paint. The record number of steps taken by a single track painter is 42,000.
Clearing away months of sand and dust from the Circuit’s grandstands is another important task for the cleaners, who are all equipped with high-pressure hoses to wash the Circuits 228 canopy’s which takes a mammoth 6920 hours to complete.
In the ground of Yas Marina Circuit there are 88.4 acres of landscaped areas, of which there’s 2.52 acres of seasonal flowers and petunias planted, are given some TLC by gardeners who will plant over 1750 different types of foliage along with 886 varieties of Palms and 529 potted plants!
Al Tareq Al Ameri, CEO of Yas Marina Circuit, said: “In the lead up to the 10th edition of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix our teams has been very busy, a huge amount of work goes into preparing for the race weekend to make sure the Circuit looks perfect. We want to ensure that the fans in the grandstand and those watching on TV around the world enjoy the best F1® experience.
“Since our first Grand Prix in 2009 we have been finely tuning our operations. It’s a massive logistical task that is the culmination of 12 months’ meticulous planning.”
It’s not just the Circuit that is cleaned and polished before the F1® weekend beings.
While the huge cleaning operation is going on, behind the scenes the business of Formula 1® is getting into full swing ahead of race weekend on November 22-25.
Teams of motor racing experts and logistics manager’s direct fleets of transporters carrying everything required for the FIA F2 Championship and GP3 Series teams. These championships, which will provide the F1® champion drivers of tomorrow, with both the F2 and GP3 Drivers’ Titles to be determined during the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
As the safety of the drivers, teams and spectators is paramount in F1®, experts will go over every inch of the Circuit to make sure vital crash barriers are placed correctly and intact, the track is clean and clear and the Circuit’s medical teams and first responders are positioned to deal with any emergency.
The logistics of organising the race weekend also extends to catering for tens of thousands of spectators in the grandstands, making sure the small army of customer service staff are on hand and prepared to help visitors enjoy the F1® experience to the fullest and ensuring sure the world’s media are positioned to get the best view of the action on the track for the hundreds of millions watching around the world.
With the huge to-do list slowly being ticked off, the 10 teams and hundreds of personnel that make up the F1® travelling circus can finally arrive. A fleet of articulated lorries loaded with the essentials that keep an F1® team racing – including the spare parts, support vehicles and fuel – will arrive in Abu Dhabi fresh from the season’s penultimate race in Brazil.
Six special charter flights will land at Abu Dhabi Airport, each loaded with more than 90 tonnes of gear, while Abu Dhabi’s Khalifa Port will handle 140containers, each carrying the kit needed to make sure the F1®, F2 and GP3 teams are able to put on yet another thrilling display of motorsport action. It will take more than 400 members of staff to offload all the equipment, using 60 forklift trucks once it reaches Yas Marina Circuit.
Aside from the hardware, the teams also require hundreds of hotel rooms and hire cars, while the motorhomes for driver must be positioned correctly and online and data links connected so engineers can access essential data for each race.
After 20 rounds of the 2018 F1® season it’s hard to predict what will happen in the big finale, but Yas Marina Circuit is guaranteed to be looking its very best.
For more information on the #AbuDhabiGP, please visit www.yasmarinacircuit.com