Abu Dhabi gets 2010 F1 season finale

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It'll be another sunset finale for F1 in Abu Dhabi in 2010

Abu Dhabi will host the F1 season finale for the second year in a row in 2010 after swapping its place on the calendar with the Brazilian Grand Prix.

The final 2010 F1 calendar revealed today by the FIA sees the last two races switched around and confirms F1 will have 19 races next year.

The Japanese and Korean Grands Prix – rounds 16 and 17 – each move back a week, meaning the Singapore and Japanese rounds are no longer back-to-back.

However the season will still end on the 14th of November, with the Brazilian and Abu Dhabi races on consecutive weekends despite the distance between the two.

Here’s the calendar in full:

RoundDatesRaceCircuit
1March 12-14thBahrain Grand PrixBahrain International Circuit
2March 26-28thAustralian Grand PrixAlbert Park, Melbourne
3April 2nd-4thMalaysian Grand PrixSepang International Circuit
4April 16-18thChinese Grand PrixShanghai International Circuit
5May 7-9thSpanish Grand PrixCircuit de Catalunya
6May 13-16thMonaco Grand PrixMonte-Carlo
7May 28-30thTurkish Grand PrixIstanbul Park
8June 11-13thCanadian Grand PrixCircuit Gilles Villeneuve, Montreal
9June 25-27thEuropean Grand PrixValencia Street Circuit
10July 9-11thBritish Grand PrixSilverstone
11July 23-25thGerman Grand PrixHockenheimring
12July 30th-August 1stHungarian Grand PrixHungaroring
13August 27-29thBelgian Grand PrixSpa-Francorchamps
14September 10-12thItalian Grand PrixMonza
15September 24-26thSingapore Grand PrixSingapore
16October 8-10thJapanese Grand PrixSuzuka
17October 22-24thKorean Grand PrixJeonnam
18November 5-7thBrazilian Grand PrixInterlagos
19November 12-14thAbu Dhabi Grand PrixYas Island

What do you think: would you rather see the F1 season finish on the brilliant Interlagos track in front of Brazil’s feverish F1 fans, or at ultra-modern Abu Dhabi with its futuristic Yas Island circuit?

Read more: 2010 F1 calendar

Image (C) Red Bull/Getty Images

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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54 comments on “Abu Dhabi gets 2010 F1 season finale”

  1. When will the Google Calendar get these updates please Keith?

    Thanks

  2. Wow it bad news day today!

    Just have to hope it gets decided in Brazil like this year. Another winter trying to forget about the hideous hotel with an f1 race going on in the background :-(

  3. Bad, bad, bad. What bunch of monkeys plumped for Abu Dhabi as season-ender? Interlagos has heritage, is proven to be a great track, has passionate fans, a party atmosphere, amphitheatre-like layout… the list goes on. Ideal for a finale, really. *head in hands*…

  4. I like Abu Dhabi and I don’t really mind Bahrain has the season opener as it always produces good races. Abu Dhabi hasn’t had much of a chance either and history means little to me as I just care about action when watching a race.
    However, there are probably going to be 4 Brazilian drivers in f1, the place has huge soul and corwds and Interlagos is incredible so I am hugely disappointed.

  5. Shame about the finale swap, I guess Abu Dhabi had first dibs as they were the last race on the original calender.

    Also, I see that the three races Singapore to Korea a evenly spaced out fortnightly, does this mean the teams will spend a whole month out in the region or just send cars and equipment with the teams returning to Europe? Surely an exhausting time for them and their families.

  6. Oh and also with them being back-to-back now won’t this be a pain for the teams? I don’t really see the logic in that unless it’s a championship showdown and so more exciting to have one after the other :S

    1. Maybe they’re doing that in anticipation…

  7. 1 week only between Brazil and Abu Dhabi … weird …

    1. most F1 teams have investments in teleportation industries now…they only need about 15 min to get from 1 side of the globe to the other…

  8. Bloody hell!

    The season starting and ending at Tilkedromes. :(

    1. Exactly what i noticed, its a disgrace. The season should start in Aus and end in Brazil, two tracks where you’re nearly guarrenteed a good race. Worst location for a final race of the season since Las Vegas.

      China should also be at the back end of the season, its usually a dull race, having it toward the end at least gives it some suspense and tension due to a title fight.

      Also the British GP is on the same days as the world cup final, surely it was in their comercial interests to avoid that clash.

      1. The British GP/World Cup Final clash was probably done on purpose by Bernie!!!

        Not happy at a dull first and last race, Brazil fans care about the racing, where as abu dhabi are just showing off there money!

  9. Oh dear! This is yet another classic example showing the power of money over common sense. Australia should be first and Brazil should be last. It’s always worked just fine that way as they are both popular and excellent circuits to start and end on respectively. Now we start and end the season with dull and duller or duller and dull depending on your yawn factor…

    1. Oh and how do I get to put my name into the hat for a FIA F1 Ambassador. I really think a few posts should be open to the public. This sounds like a great job…

      1. its bloody bernie, wanting to fill his pockets!

        even though he doesnt have enough years left to spend all his billions!

        new points….

        ….now this!

        Bernie has gone NUTS!!!

        F1 is not a sport its bernie’s pet.

        the biggest improvement that can ever be made to F1 is getting rid of that idea!

  10. BOOOOOOOOO!!!!! Booooooooooo!!!

    Just like this year,I refuse to watch next year’s F1 race in that awful place.

    1. is there a reason to ur madness?

      1. While I would stop short of no watching the race I can see where Wesley is coming from.

        I really didnt enjoy the tourism video that was last years race. Constant wide shots of hotels, boats ferrari world etc then panning to a long shot of an F1 car not to mention masses of helicopter long range shots showing off the place.

        How many times have you seen Silverstone starting the camera shot on their hotel then picking up a f1 car for the end of the shot…never because there isnt a awful hotel there, meaning totally focused camera action on the F1 race ( the reason why we are watching!!)

        1. Would help if there was more than 3 races worth of action in F1 across the whole of the 19 race schedule…

      2. “is there a reason to ur madness?”

        LOL!

        thestig84 covered some of that for me,thank you stig.

        For one thing it is all glamour and the super rich,no one in that area could care less about F1 racing or any other kind of racing.It sickens me.Bernie is nothing but a pimp.As long as he gets his money he doesn’t care that he is destroying the roots of this fantastic sport.

        But,there are many reasons that I can not state on this website because I refuse to get Keith in hot water.

  11. Brazil was perfect for the finale,anyways looking forward for April 2nd-4th for the Malaysian GP.

  12. bad news.
    i hope the title will be decided in Brazil, hopefully for Massa!

  13. I’m still just glad to see Canada back on the list.

    1. yeah I’m really thankful for that. We seem to have very good tracks on the calendar for next year which should keep plenty happy. Shame it won’t end at Brazil but I am just happy we have great tracks.

      1. Well, it ended at Brazil this year, even if it didn’t actually end at Brazil this year, but I though Aboo Dabby was alright. It wasn’t as awful as a few other races/tracks this year, or as some people thought it was. The track was decent enough, very pretty, and there was a semi-decent amount of racing going on in spits and spots.

        Plus there’s the whole metaphor of ‘the sun setting on the season’.

        Maybe the Bahrain race should start at 4am, with the sun rising half way through?

        1. I actually like that idea about Bahrain :P We have twilight races and night races so may as well

  14. Personally I would prefer if the season opener was in Australia and the finale in Brazil.

    The Autosport article claims

    Interlagos moving back to November 7 to avoid a date clash with Brazil’s presidential elections.

    http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/80533

    1. At least that is a legitimate reason to swap finales that I can accept. They’re swapping the opener with Melbourne and Bahrain for another stupid argument over start-times! I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who found getting up at Stupid-o’clock in the morning to watch the new season begin part of the fun?

      1. Yeah I did as well, although i quite often got up for the Quali then fell asleep half way through,

        I have always wondered why not start at one side of the world and work across, It would save starting in Bahrain then going round the world only to end up back in abu dhabi?

    2. In fact, October 31st will be Brazil’s second round of presidential, legislative and state governments elections… but certainly Abu Dhabi got the finale for financial reasons…

      Otherwise, it would be much better to have the Brazilian Grand Prix on November 14th (a national holiday’s eve, since November 15th is the date when, in 1889, Brazil became a republic, which would make the tickets sell out even faster than they usually do) and Abu Dhabi on October 31st…

      It is curious to here so many of you saying Brazil “always worked” as a season ender, since it was a season opener, at least, from 1984 to 1989 and from 1994 to 1995, and usually was among the first three races…

      The Brazilian Grand Prix only started to figure among the last races from 2004 onwards… (sorry for the spelling)

      Australia, otherwise, was a season ender from 1985 to 1995, when the Grand Prix was held in Adelaide…

      Anyway, I prefer Interlagos as the last race, because it doesn’t rain as much (but still more than enough to provide thrilling races) in October than it rains in March…

  15. Abu Dhabi is not a bad scene at all by the looks of it, and some of its luster was taken by the fact that Button had wrapped things up in Brazil, so it turned into an exhibition race of sorts. The spectacle though seems great and i can see it more of a season opener than a finale.

  16. I cant understand why the finale would be anywhere other than Interlagos. I dont think Abu Dhabi is that bad of a track, but its not right for the season finale.

  17. I think the schedule has a nice mixture of modern and classic tracks. I think it keeps it interesting. Its good to have variety amongst the tracks reguardless of the order in which they are used. I enjoy being able watch different looking tracks, from the forests of Europe to the deserts of the middle east. The important thing is that regardless of the track, there are F1 cars on racing on it!

  18. Interlagos should be the season finale, as it has tradition, fans, everything.

    1. If not Interlagos, Suzuka. The place I always think of as the traditional final race of the season.

  19. This is a bad move… hmm… well, can’t be helped. But I’m pretty sure Interlagos is where the title will be decided.. that’s what it’s been doing since 2005 anyway heh.

  20. Prisoner Monkeys
    11th December 2009, 21:22

    I don’t have a problem with Abu Dhabi as the final race. It might be nice to close the season out at Brazil, but what are the odds that the title fight will go to the last round, anyway. I can hear the uproar that would have occured if Brazil was the last round, but the championship decided at Abu Dhabi.

  21. My Formula One season guide for next year: okay race, good race, good race, crap race, crap race, good race, good race, good race, bore your eyes out with a spoon, good race, good race, good race, good race, sleeper, the Holy Grail, no idea, good race, Lives of the Rich and Famous.

  22. Mike "the bike" Schumacher
    11th December 2009, 22:47

    Great shame. If the title decider is in Abu Dabhi, it’ll be a boring race.

  23. If anything they should replace Interlagos for Suzuka, not Yas Island. Suzuka closed the seasons for so many years, with great style and awesome races. Interlagos did a great job too in the last few seasons, and Yas Island, even though it has a beatiful “environment” it’s not a season ending track, not by a long shot. Well, maybe if the championship is already decided.

    Anyhow, let’s hope that 2011’s calendar has Suzuka and Interlagos in the last 2 dates.

  24. Well I am prepared to accept the trade off with Abu Dhabi as the closer (although I’d much prefer Brazil) just to get Montreal back on the calendar. But I just can’t accept Bahrain at the opener. Melbourne is the traditional start of the season, and that is the way it should be for ever more, IMO.

  25. such a shame! The podium winners would be spraying some dumb fizzy drink rather than champaign at the season finale.

    1. Well, atleast the trophies will be made out of metal.

  26. im excited about the canadian GP and the new korean track.

  27. Some people have very short memories. Interlagos has only been hosting races towards the end of the season since 2004. Before that, it was one of the first races of the year.

    Having the start and the end of the season in the Gulf makes sense as that part of the world is the hub for most of the world’s aviation anyway!

  28. Well said Red Andy, for all of us “older” fans Brazil was always the 1st or 2nd race and it always ended in Australia. Brazil season endings have been few and far between. I am a big fan of Interlagos but many people here have very short memories. Drivers hated the cirucit and it had to be resurfaced every year for 8 years till anyone was happy to drive on it.

  29. May until we get to Europe?

    This calendar smacks of interest over common sense. Luckily it probably won’t change anything for the worse, but it’s a niggly annoyance.

  30. I think that Bahrain deserves the initial GP – especially over Melbourne. Living in Australia and having our home GP (Adelaide) stolen by a neighbouring city – only for them to have to hand out heaps of free tickets to schools etc. just to make it look like people are showing up! They get no one to the track – yet Adelaide was always a sell-out + a much much better circuit. Maybe they should start the season at Abu Dhabi – then you have night races at the start + end of the season.

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  32. Very insightful post, thanks for sharing.

  33. Awesome post, Definitely very informative

  34. In my opinion every change that brings some good and has no negative sides are best.. Maybe on other side stays tradition but why not.. Maybe for one year.. Next will be some other track.. More it gets around the world more people would pay attention on F1..

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