Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2026 from a yacht: how to watch the race from Yas Marina

Every December the Formula 1 season ends at Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi, and the best seat in the house is not a seat at all. The circuit wraps around the marina, so a yacht berthed inside it sits a few metres from the track, with the cars passing at deck level and the grandstands, the hotel and the Friday and Saturday concerts all within a short walk.

What a Grand Prix weekend on a yacht looks like

The yachts we hold for the race weekend are berthed inside Yas Marina from Thursday to Sunday. You arrive on Thursday afternoon, the crew settle you in, and for three days the boat is your base: breakfast on the aft deck before practice, the pit lane and the paddock a few minutes away, lunch and dinner on board with guests coming and going, and the race itself watched from the sundeck on Sunday afternoon with the marina lights coming on as the chequered flag falls.

Most of our clients use the yacht for hospitality as much as for the racing. A board of directors hosting clients, a family celebrating a birthday that happens to fall on race weekend, or a group of friends who have done the grandstands before and want the weekend to feel different this time.

What is included

• The berth inside Yas Marina for the four days of the event.
• The yacht with her full crew, provisioned and ready.
• A guest allowance for the weekend, agreed yacht by yacht.
• Event tickets, where the package carries them, so your guests can move between the yacht and the grandstands.

Security deposit and VAT are confirmed in the charter agreement. We quote one price for the whole weekend, so there are no surprises on the Sunday night.

Which yacht

The boats held for the weekend range from 70 to over 100 feet, with room for ten to forty guests. Larger yachts such as Sky Fall and Spectre suit corporate hospitality; the 70 to 90 footers suit a family or a group of friends who want the weekend to themselves. The full list, with the price for the weekend against each, is on our Abu Dhabi Grand Prix yacht charter page.

Getting there and getting about

Yas Island is about an hour by car from Dubai Marina and twenty minutes from Abu Dhabi International Airport. Once you are on the island the car stays parked: the marina, the circuit, the hotel and the concert stage are all on foot. If you are flying in for the weekend we can arrange the private jet and the transfer to the quay.

How early to book

Berths inside Yas Marina are limited and the yachts we hold are released a few at a time as the weekend approaches. The larger yachts are usually confirmed by October; the smaller boats sometimes stay open into November. Tell us the number of guests and whether you need tickets, and we come back with the yachts that fit and one price for the weekend.

If the race weekend is the reason for the trip, it is worth adding a day on the water in Dubai before or after. The Dubai fleet charters by the hour, and the Dubai itinerary shows what a day along the coast looks like.