Abu Dhabi F1 hospitality area expanded

Abu Dhabi’s Grand Prix race organisers has been forced to increase the number of tickets available for its corporate hospitality area due to growing demand despite the impact of the global financial crisis, its CEO has said.

Abu Dhabi Motorsport Management (ADMM) has increased capacity in the three-tier Paddock Club from 4,000 to 5,000 Richard Cregan told Arabian Business.

“The year started off in a very difficult way for corporate hospitality because of the economic crisis. I think probably 50 percent of that was reflecting the economic crisis and the other 50 percent was reflecting the fact that those with money didn’t like to be seen spending it.

“As the year has progressed things have moved on a little bit and started to improve a little bit for the economy...Luckily enough we had the extra space and we’ve increased.”

The new stadium on Yas Island has capacity for 50,000 said Cregan, adding that around 90 percent of tickets have now been sold. “Initially they [ticket sales] went very well and then they dropped off as is the trend. Now in the last two weeks they’ve really gone up again,” he said.

Abu Dhabi paid a record $45m to host this year’s final F1 race, according to Bloomberg. The three day event is F1’s first day-to-night race.

ADMM aims to have the 5.55km circuit, designed by renowned F1 track designer Hermann Tilke, booked out up to 300 days a year by next year, Cregan said.

“Our target is to try and get as close to that next year as we can. I know it sounds a tall order but you have companies who want to take the track for one to two weeks and then you start to take those days very quickly,” he said.

Last week ADMM announced the first race outside of the F1 weekend would be a V8 Supercars event in February. The circuit will host the opening race of the next championship of the Australian racing series in February.

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