Desert Dreams
When Abu Dhabi's astonishing new Formula One dream was unveiled last week, Adam Cooper was on hand to talk exclusively to the key players. And after being left disappointed by the most recent new wasteland venues, he is delighted to find the Gulf's latest new project is breaking the mould
When visiting Abu Dhabi for the Grand Prix announcement last weekend, I couldn't help but recall a column I wrote in Autosport magazine in May 2004. At the time we were about to go to Monaco, so in the story I extolled my love of street circuits. We had also recently been to the first Bahrain GP, and while the event was adjudged a success, I felt it had been a waste of an opportunity to recreate some Monaco magic.
The inaugural Shanghai event was coming up, and Istanbul was already scheduled for 2005. And just like Bahrain, both were going to be run at tracks built miles from anywhere, on what had previously been empty sites. Like Monaco, all three cities were surrounded by water, so why hadn't any of them opted for a street circuit, rather than something so far from the centre?
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