Preparations for the 2023 Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix are nearing completion, before the event kicks off in earnest on Thursday.
Despite the venue being in use all year round, teams have been out in force to get Yas Marina Circuit looking pristine and ready to welcome the tens of thousands who will descend on the island venue for the event.
To this end, a dedicated team of cleaning and maintenance specialists, painters, gardeners and technical experts have been sprucing up the 5.28km track, its grandstands, the fan zones and hospitality spaces, and landscaped areas.
Improvements include a new LED lighting system that will improve efficiency by more than a third and reduce electricity use by nearly a quarter.
The circuit’s near 90 acres of landscaped areas have been given an extra 2.5 acres of seasonal flowers, as well as more than 1,750 different kinds of foliage. These include 886 varieties of palm trees and 529 potted plants.
In the pit lane and paddocks, logistics specialists have been managing the arrival of everything required for the weekend’s activities.
The fact the track is surrounded by sea makes this challenge all the more onerous, as anyone who has had to oversee the shifting of large amounts of kit via a handful of entry and exit points will attest.
All this is being shifted around by 65 forklift trucks.
Ongoing throughout the weekend, safety experts will inspect every part of the track.
And when the racing teams arrive, they will be using 227 rooms with more than 3,000 pieces of furniture, fixtures and fittings.
Practice begins on Friday and marks the culmination of a 23-event season in motorsport’s biggest tournament.
The season is already in the bag for Red Bull's Max Verstappen, but commentators are predicting little let up when the cars finally start their engines on Sunday.
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What is a black hole?
1. Black holes are objects whose gravity is so strong not even light can escape their pull
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3. Large black holes can also be formed when smaller ones collide and merge
4. The biggest black holes lurk at the centre of many galaxies, including our own
5. Astronomers believe that when the universe was very young, black holes affected how galaxies formed
Another way to earn air miles
In addition to the Emirates and Etihad programmes, there is the Air Miles Middle East card, which offers members the ability to choose any airline, has no black-out dates and no restrictions on seat availability. Air Miles is linked up to HSBC credit cards and can also be earned through retail partners such as Spinneys, Sharaf DG and The Toy Store.
An Emirates Dubai-London round-trip ticket costs 180,000 miles on the Air Miles website. But customers earn these ‘miles’ at a much faster rate than airline miles. Adidas offers two air miles per Dh1 spent. Air Miles has partnerships with websites as well, so booking.com and agoda.com offer three miles per Dh1 spent.
“If you use your HSBC credit card when shopping at our partners, you are able to earn Air Miles twice which will mean you can get that flight reward faster and for less spend,” says Paul Lacey, the managing director for Europe, Middle East and India for Aimia, which owns and operates Air Miles Middle East.
White hydrogen: Naturally occurring hydrogen
Chromite: Hard, metallic mineral containing iron oxide and chromium oxide
Ultramafic rocks: Dark-coloured rocks rich in magnesium or iron with very low silica content
Ophiolite: A section of the earth’s crust, which is oceanic in nature that has since been uplifted and exposed on land
Olivine: A commonly occurring magnesium iron silicate mineral that derives its name for its olive-green yellow-green colour
