The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix has closed the Formula One season almost every year since 2009, run at Yas Marina as a twilight race — it starts in daylight and finishes under floodlights, with the track lighting calibrated so the transition is invisible on camera.
The millions quoted beside this race are the television audience. Yas Marina seats about sixty thousand. A broadcast audience printed in an attendance column is the worst error available to a reference work, and no attendance figure is recorded here.
Around the race sits a concert programme at the Etihad Park with headliners of a scale that sells tickets independently of the motorsport.
Its position as the finale means that in a close championship year the emirate hosts the decisive event of the season, with the hotel and flight consequences that follow. The date is set by the FIA calendar and published a year ahead.
PlanningA window at the turn of November and December, set by the FIA calendar and announced a year ahead.
Dates
Season
Computed from the recurrence rule we record for this entry, not copied from a listing. A date marked ~ comes from a calendar conversion and the observance may fall a day or two either side.