F1 continues to expand

Formula One continues to expand: alongside India and South Korea, who have been confirmed as host countries for 2010, the elite class of motor sport will stop in the United Arab Emirates as early as next year. The date is planned for October.

After Bahrain, this will be the second desert emirate on the Arabian Peninsula to be included in the Formula One calendar. According to information from "Autosport" magazine, Formula One promoter Bernie Ecclestone is planning on staging the first Grand Prix in Abu Dhabi in October 2009. It is not yet clear whether this will be the final race of the season.

Work on the new circuit in Abu Dhabi is already at full speed in order to finish the track, facilities and infrastructure in time. Circuit architect Hermann Tilke is once again responsible for the planning and execution. The circuits in Shanghai, Bahrain, Malaysia and Turkey have already been completed under his guidance. "The Tilke group has learnt its lessons from the tracks it has built in the past, and put all those lessons into this track," Ecclestone said at the official launch of the event last year.