The sole host of the F1 finale since 2014, the 2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix marks Yas Marina Circuit’s 16th appearance on the calendar. Here are all the facts and statistics you need to know about Yas Marina Circuit ahead of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix!
Track length: 5.281km
Race length: 306.183km
Laps: 58
Turns: 16
Circuit opened: 2009
F1 first visited: 2009
Races held: 15
Track Record: 1:22.109, Max Verstappen, 2021
Lap Record: 1:26.103, Max Verstappen, 2021
RACE WINNERS
There have been 15 F1 Grands Prix held at Yas Marina Circuit since the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix joined the calendar in 2009. During that time, there have been six different winners.
Hamilton has the most Abu Dhabi Grand Prix wins
Lewis Hamilton has more wins here than any other driver, with five. Half of the six previous Abu Dhabi Grand Prix winners are on the current grid, with Nico Rosberg, Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel being the former winners who are absent.
Aside from Hamilton’s five wins, Max Verstappen has won in all of the last four seasons, while Valtteri Bottas has taken a single victory.
Sebastian Vettel, Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen are the only drivers to have taken back-to-back wins at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Vettel did so in 2009 and 2010, Hamilton won in 2018 and 2019, while Verstappen became the first driver to take three consecutive wins at Yas Marina Circuit in 2022 and extended the record to four wins in a row in 2023.
British drivers have had the most victories for a nation at Yas Marina, with five.
Lewis Hamilton is the only driver to achieve a Grand Slam at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, doing so in 2019.
Red Bull have the most wins at Yas Marina Circuit
Red Bull are the team with the most wins at the track, with seven. They surpassed Mercedes’ former record of six Abu Dhabi Grand Prix wins in 2023.
Mercedes have powered more victories here than any other engine manufacturer, with seven wins in total.
Red Bull and Mercedes are the two teams to have taken successive wins at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Mercedes hold the record for most consecutive wins at the event, winning six in a row between 2014 and 2019.
There have been five occasions on which a team has recorded a 1-2 result at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Mercedes have done so three times, while Red Bull have achieved the feat twice.
Vettel holds the record for largest Abu Dhabi Grand Prix winning margin
The largest win margin at the Yas Marina Circuit came in 2013, when Sebastian Vettel won by 30.829 seconds.
The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix has been won by less than five seconds on six occasions, including at four of the last eight events.
The smallest win margin here was Lewis Hamilton’s victory in 2016, which he tactically took by 0.439 seconds.
From the 15 races held here so far, the average Abu Dhabi Grand Prix win margin is 9.846 seconds.
ON THE PODIUM
14 different drivers have finished on the podium at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Hamilton has 10 podiums at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
Lewis Hamilton has had the most top three appearances at the Yas Marina Circuit, with ten.
There are eight drivers on the current grid who have previously finished on the podium at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Lewis Hamilton has a record ten podium finishes, Max Verstappen has had six top three finishes, Valtteri Bottas and Charles Leclerc have each had three top three finishes, Fernando Alonso has finished on the Yas Marina podium twice and Carlos Sainz, Sergio Perez and George Russell took their first Abu Dhabi podium finishes in 2021, 2022 and 2023 respectively.
Britain is the most successful nation in terms of podiums at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, with 14 top three finishes.
Mercedes sit top of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix podium list
Mercedes have had more podium finishes here than any other team, with 14 – just one ahead of Red Bull.
POLESITTERS
Six different drivers have started from pole position at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Hamilton has the most Abu Dhabi Grand Prix poles
Lewis Hamilton has taken more poles here than any other driver, with five starts from the front of the grid.
There are three previous Abu Dhabi Grand Prix polesitters on the 2024 grid. Lewis Hamilton has taken five, Max Verstappen has taken four and Valtteri Bottas has a single Abu Dhabi Grand Prix to his name.
Sebastian Vettel, Nico Rosberg, Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen have all taken back-to-back poles at the circuit. Vettel took two in a row in 2010 and 2011, Rosberg did the same in 2014 and 2015 and Hamilton took pole in 2018 and 2019. Verstappen became the first driver to take three poles in a row here in 2022 and extended the record to four successive poles in 2023.
British drivers have had the most poles at the track, with five.
Red Bull have the most poles in Abu Dhabi
Red Bull have taken the most poles for a team at Yas Marina, with seven. They overtook Mercedes’ former record in 2023.
Red Bull and Mercedes are the two teams to have taken successive poles at Yas Marina. Mercedes hold the record for most consecutive poles here with six, having set the fastest Saturday time in every season between 2014 and 2020.
There have been six races at Yas Marina Circuit in which a team has locked-out the front row of the grid. It first happened in 2013. In 2022, Red Bull became the first team to achieve the feat since 2018.
Hamilton holds the largest pole margin at Yas Marina Circuit
The largest pole margin at the track came in 2009, when Lewis Hamilton took pole by 0.667 seconds.
Meanwhile, the smallest pole margin was at the 2020 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, when Max Verstappen took pole by just 0.025 seconds. Sebastian Vettel’s 2010 pole is the only other time that pole has been decided by less than a tenth of a second at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
The largest gap between the slowest and fastest cars in qualifying was 7.197 seconds, which happened in 2015, when Nico Rosberg’s pole time was 7.197 seconds faster than Roberto Mehri’s time for last on the grid.
From the 15 Abu Dhabi Grands Prix held so far at the Yas Marina Circuit, the average pole margin has been 0.245 seconds.
LEARN MORE ABOUT THE ABU DHABI GRAND PRIX
SATURDAY TO SUNDAY
The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix has been won from pole on ten occasions, including in all of the last nine races held here.
There have been only four races at Yas Marina Circuit in which the polesitter did not lead at the end of the first lap.
Sebastian Vettel’s retirement at the end of Lap 1 in the 2011 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix is the only time that the polesitter has completed the first lap in a position lower than third.
The polesitter has led at the end of the first lap in all but one of the last nine Yas Marina races. The exception is the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, where polesitter Max Verstappen was overtaken by Lewis Hamilton on Lap 1.
The 2012 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix is the only race at the Yas Marina Circuit which hasn’t been won from the front row of the grid. That event was won by Kimi Raikkonen, who started from fourth.
A podium has been recorded at Yas Marina Circuit by a pit lane starter
There have been four occasions on which the polesitter has failed to finish on the podium. There’s only been one occasion on which the polesitter here has gone on to finish on the podium without winning the race. That happened in 2013, when polesitter Mark Webber finished second.
The furthest back podium finish at the track came in 2012, when Sebastian Vettel finished third having started from the pit lane. That’s the only time a podium finish at the track has come from outside the top six on the grid. 2012 is also the only time that none of the top three qualifiers have gone on to finish on the podium.
All of the top three qualifiers have gone on to finish on the podium at Yas Marina on six occasions – in 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2020 and 2022. The top three finished in the order in which they started in 2015, 2017, 2019 and 2020.
SUNDAY STATISTICS
So far, there have been 834 racing laps completed at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
From the 315 cars which have started a race here, 270 have reached the end of the race. That gives an overall finish rate of 86%.
Only four races at this track have featured fewer than ten drivers finishing on the lead lap of the Grand Prix; including in three of the last seven seasons.
Vettel has the most fastest laps in Abu Dhabi
Sebastian Vettel has set the fastest lap of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on more occasions than any other driver. He’s done so four times.
Red Bull are the team who’ve recorded the most fastest laps at Yas Marina Circuit, with six.
Hamilton has led over 300 laps here
Lewis Hamilton has led 319 laps at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix – almost double the number of laps led at the event by any other driver.
Eight drivers have led laps at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix without ever winning the race. Daniel Ricciardo has led the most laps here without ever winning, having been at the front of the field for 18 laps.
There have been only three races at Yas Marina Circuit in which the winner has led every lap of the race. It happened in 2013, 2019 and 2020.
The fewest laps led en-route to victory at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix is one, with Max Verstappen having led only the last lap in the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Every other winner has led at least 29 laps of the race.
The 2016 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix is the race at the track which featured the most different drivers leading. Four drivers led a lap in that race.
Safety Cars and Red Flags at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
The Safety Car has made an appearance in five races at the track – in 2010, 2012, 2018, 2020 and 2021. The 2012 race is the only one which has featured more than one Safety Car stint, while 2018, 2020 and 2021 also saw the Virtual Safety Car deployed in addition to the actual Safety Car.
There is yet to be a red-flagged race at the Yas Marina Circuit and every race at the track has reached its scheduled distance.
There has never been a rain-affected race at the Yas Marina Circuit. Rain did fall during the 2018 event, but not enough to affect the race or make the track wet.
The 2013 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix is the Yas Marina race which has seen the most cars finish. 21 of the 22 starters crossed the finish line on that occasion. In 2021, just 14 cars reached the end of the race; a new record low for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
There have been six first lap retirements at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. The most recent was for Nico Hulkenberg in 2018.
CHAMPIONSHIP GLORY
A World Champion has been crowned at this track on four occasions – in 2010, 2014, 2016 and 2021.
The Constructors’ Championship has been decided at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix only once. Mercedes were crowned champions for an eighth consecutive season at the circuit in 2021.
After the 2023 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Red Bull led the Constructors’ Championship by 451 points. That’s the record for the biggest lead ever held in the Constructors’ Championship.
Of the 15 races held at Yas Marina Circuit, ten have been dead rubber races, with both titles having already been decided. The 2012 and 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix are the only races at the circuit in which neither titles had not been won before the race.
The winner of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix has been crowned World Champion in the same season on eight occasions, while the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix polesitter has been crowned champion in the same year seven times.
The leader of the Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championships after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix has never failed to go on to win that year’s title.
