Abu Dhabi: Gunning for a sign-off that befits their enhanced stature, Force India drivers Adrian Sutil and Vitantonio Liuzzi are pushing hard in the simulator to get a hang of the spectacular anti-clockwise virgin circuit ahead of Sunday's season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
A new venue on the calendar, the 17th leg of the 2009 Formula One Championship is arguably the most talked about events of recent years on account of the sheer scale of the work involved in constructing the state-of-the-art Yas Marina circuit.
In just two years, the organisers have built a 25km sq man-made island known as Yas Island with 17km sq of luxury apartments, hotels, retail parks, theme parks and the circuit. The track itself is an engineering marvel, with unique facilities including a pass through a hotel lobby, underground pit lane exit and a straight running parallel to an airplane landing strip.
Both Sutil and Liuzzi are spending extra hours in the simulator, trying to master the layout.
"The first step is always to look at the track map and the conditions you can expect at the event. Is there anything that looks different or challenging in the corners, is there something that you need to prepare for physically? I'll speak to my engineers about what they expect in terms of set-up and then the next step is to put it all together in the simulator," Sutil said.
Bureau Report
First Published: Thursday, October 29, 2009, 17:47