The 2010 Abu Dhabi GP, which will once again play the part of the championship finale in next season's schedule, will continue to be run as F1's only slightly pointless day/night event, race organiser Richard Cregan today confirmed.
The 'unique' selling point of the Abu Dhabi race, with the effect of the sun setting only slightly ruined by the fact that the race is forced to start under floodlights to help the drivers, will be kept for the race next year, and Cregan also confirmed that there are no plans to alter the controversial tunnel section in the pit lane.
The day/night setting of the race was primarily motivated by the constant desire to ensure that every race starts at roughly lunchtime over in Europe, but was also born out of a desire by the organisers to have a unique aspect to the staging of the race.
Despite some concerns over the effect of the setting sun on visibility, and concerns over pit lane incidents caused by the tunnel part of the pit lane exit, which saw the drivers negotiate a tight corner after the pit lane speed limit zone was over, the 2009 event passed off without a hitch.
Indeed, the track, the only new event on the 2009 schedule, has won the sometimes-coveted FIA Race Promoters’ Trophy on the strength of it's debut on the calendar.
When asked in an interview with Autosport whether there were any plans to change either the start time or the pit lane for the 2010 event, Cregan replied that: "Nothing will change in that respect. We are doing some small modifications in light of some of the things that we recognised over the course of the event, but nothing major."
He added that: "Like anything new, there is always that challenge of breaking the mould, as in designing a circuit that has a pit-lane tunnel as an exit. You will have lots of people who will detract from the spectacle of it by talking only of the doom and gloom, but we didn’t have it – it worked very, very well.
"The lighting system worked incredibly well, the drivers were happy with it and most importantly it created an amazing spectacle."
Cregan also looked to play up the potential longevity of the Abu Dhabi event, after a number of other 'new-build' racetracks to join the calendar recently saw a dramatic tail-off in spectator numbers after their first events.
"It certainly fulfilled everything that we set out to achieve in terms of creating awareness for Abu Dhabi and the UAE," Cregan insisted when talking about the 2009 race.
"I think the most important thing was that we did sell out, and people went away, they were happy, and they want to come back. We have already had a lot of people contacting us through our numbers and emails to book their tickets again, so they had a great experience.
"That was our target from the beginning – to make sure there was a good experience had by all."
Cregan also insisted that the lack of on-track action, save for the seminal last-lap scrap between Mark Webber and world champion Jenson Button, was really due to the car design and not the restrictive properties of the Yas Island track.
"We were very happy that the event went off very well," he claimed, "Both the FIA and FOM said the event was fantastic. The racing spectacle is something that comes about through weather conditions or other circumstances – and it’s also down to car design and sporting regulations.
"If you look at some of the other circuits around, they all have that same issue that a lot of it is down to the car design and the regulations as to what it can create - and the fact of whether drivers are willing to take a risk? Are they willing to lose a hundredth of a second here or there to have more spectacular racing?
"Next year when you have no refuelling you will see more exciting racing, you will see cars on full tanks, and you will see very much that it is down to how the driver will look after his tyres. We will see more interesting racing."
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