The Abu Dhabi track has an amazing appearance and it comes across very well on television. The hotel that is lit up in different colours looks spectacular and you can tell that a lot of money has been invested in this facility. When I walked the track for the first time last year, I thought it would offer a lot of overtaking opportunities, but actually there was a lot less action in the race than I expected.
Having lots of wide run-off areas definitely doesn’t help overtaking because it’s much easier to defend your position. You know that even if you miss your braking point, you won’t lose anything because you can cut the corner and stay ahead. Of course, you cannot do it every lap, but if there was a wall or a gravel trap instead, it might give the driver behind a better chance to overtake. But it can also work the other way, too, because the guy who is attacking can risk much more in the braking zones knowing that he has an escape path if the manœuvre doesn’t work out.
One of the things I find annoying about this track is the number of off-camber corners, such as turns 16 and 17. In these corners it’s very easy to get on the power and then lose traction and slide with the rear of the car, which can cost you a lot of time. So it’s a very tricky track.
The race starts in the early evening, so you have to change your visor strip to be ready for racing at dusk. The other issue I remember from last year was that we had all three practice sessions in daylight and then both qualifying and the race took place at dusk. That made it hard because the temperatures dropped and the track conditions were completely different, which had a big impact on car balance. But now we have the experience from last year and we know to make set-up changes to prepare for running in the evening.
Although Abu Dhabi is the final race of the year, it doesn’t mean we’re all going on holiday as soon as it’s over. A few days after the race all the teams will remain in Abu Dhabi for the first test on the new Pirelli tyres as we begin our preparations for 2011.
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