As soon as you land in Abu Dhabi, you’re bombarded with facts about the new circuit. Each of the many members of the customer service team in the airport wears a scarf in chequered flag motif (yep, that’s black and white…) and before you exit customs they’ve handed you a booklet in Arabic and English which tells you everything about the circuit. Information such as… this is the first circuit where every seat is covered; there are 30 garages in the support race pitlane; it’s the only track which runs through a hotel; it has the longest straight in F1 (1.2km); it has the only pitlane tunnel in grand prix racing; it has the only run-off which goes under a grandstand. It’s bigger, better and more organised than any circuit on the planet. A shame the team were taken from the airport in the smallest, oldest, slowest bus on the planet:

A walk of the track though, reveals much of these bold claims are true. Whereas in the UK the powers that be are arguing over which of the two more traditional homes of British racing will be up to Mr Ecclestone’s expectations in time for next season, in the Middle East they’re creating new, innovative monuments to motor-racing in the desert. Complete with water parks. And they don’t have many of those in Leicestershire.

Although they do have multi-storey car parks – and the pitlane exit through the tunnel, under the track does have a touch of the car park about it. The long descent, tight left-hander and then up a long slope to re-join the main track is going to be an interesting challenge for those exiting and those on track.

The circuit boasts two separate track configurations at a time and while the run-off is slightly more substantial than a Singapore or a Monaco, there isn’t much in the way of gravel traps to slow cars which are heading towards the Armco… just painted concrete. They’re painting quite a lot of concrete still today (Wednesday). And while much of the grass (yes, they’re growing grass in the desert) at the side of the track is manicured lawn, there are the odd patches where the turf hasn’t taken and patches of sand have been spray-painted green. They’ll never spot it on the TV.

What they might spot on television is the misspelling of Sebastian’s name above his garage. And they got M Buemi’s first name wrong as well next door. Although with trademark local efficiency they’ll probably have sorted it come Friday.

Our hotel is one of five in a semi-circle just across the road from the track. The starting-from-scratch method of creating motorsport oases means everything is close at hand and purpose-built, the down side is that there’s not much else here apart from the track and the accommodation. Most teams’ taste of the local culture will involve checking out the Mexican restaurant based in their brand-spanking new hotel.

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