F1 is not only entering unchartered territory geographically this weekend with the inaugural Abu Dhabi Grand Prix – the final race of the 2009 world championship campaign – but it is also preparing to head into the twilight zone, with the first event in the sport’s long history to begin in daylight and end at dusk.

The all-new, Hermann Tilke-designed, anti-clockwise Yas Marina street circuit will be the 67th to welcome the top flight in six decades – quite an honour, all-told – and incorporates a number of unique features, most notably the pit-lane being underground beneath a luxury hotel, with the cars exiting back onto the track again through a tight and tortuous tunnel.

Former GP2 Series front-runner and F1 aspirant Bruno Senna has predicted that there will be mistakes aplenty as drivers find their way around the 5.55km layout and adjust to the new day-into-night light levels, whilst 2008 world champion Lewis Hamilton has described the facilities as ‘mind-blowing’ and commercial rights-holder Bernie Ecclestone – who brokered the deal for the capital of the United Arab Emirates to host the race in the first place – has audaciously opined that ‘no-one is going to top this’. So who is going to win?

Based on recent performances, you would have to say that Red Bull Racing have the strongest car at the end of the season, with Sebastian Vettel having triumphed at Suzuka and team-mate Mark Webber a fortnight later at Interlagos. A hat-trick would mark the perfect end to an almost-perfect campaign for the energy drinks-backed operation – and Vettel will be keen to ensure that he remains ahead of Brawn GP rival Rubens Barrichello to clinch the runner-up spot in the final drivers’ standings, even if Webber has hinted that he will not exactly be going out of his way to help the young German to do so.

Barrichello, of course, is in fine form too, having set pole position in trying and pressurised circumstances on home turf in Brazil last time out, and even if the oldest and most experienced driver in the field ultimately saw his title hopes extinguished by poor heavy-fuel pace and a late-race puncture, he can doubtless be considered a contender for victory in the UAE. As, arguably for the first time in the best part of half a season, can newly-crowned F1 2009 World Champion Jenson Button, who finally liberated of the stress of not being able to put a foot wrong can now at last take to the circuit once more with nothing to prove – and nothing to lose. A first victory in almost five months for Britain’s tenth title-winner in the top flight would be a fine way indeed to conclude the 29-year-old’s season, and would likely go some way to silencing his detractors into the bargain too.

Other challengers for the leading places are likely to be McLaren-Mercedes and Ferrari, though both are effectively ‘one-man’ teams at the moment, with Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen invariably up at the sharp end of proceedings, but respective team-mates Heikki Kovalainen – fighting for his very future in F1, let alone a stay of execution at Woking – and Giancarlo Fisichella rarely in the same ballpark. Should one of the four men triumph in Abu Dhabi, they will take with them the honour of the final victory using the FIA’s contentious KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems) technology, whilst for Raikkonen the weekend will mark a farewell from Ferrari, and for Fisichella – barring an unexpected Indian summer for the veteran grand prix-winner – a farewell full stop.

Indeed, there will be all manner of ‘goodbyes’ in the paddock on Sunday night, with double F1 World Champion Fernando Alonso eyeing one last podium finish for Renault before departing for scarlet shores next year, the Spaniard’s replacement Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld aiming to send BMW off in style and the impressively consistent Nico Rosberg bidding to finally make the rostrum in 2009 to conclude his career with Williams.

At Toyota, Jarno Trulli could similarly be heading for the exit door come season’s end – seemingly to Lotus, to renew his successful working relationship with esteemed engineering guru Mike Gascoyne – whilst Kamui Kobayashi is perhaps only at the beginning of his own journey in F1, as the young Japanese ace makes his second start at the highest level in place of the injured Timo Glock, with many having taken note of the reigning GP2 Asia Series Champion on his São Paulo debut, both for good reasons and bad...

Over at Force India, meanwhile, Trulli’s nemesis Adrian Sutil will clearly be eager to banish his Interlagos memories with his second points-scoring finish of the year on Yas Island, as Sébastien Buemi over at Red Bull ‘junior’ concern Scuderia Toro Rosso conversely returned to form with a bang in Brazil after far more races at the wrong end of the field than he would care to count. But then, given the newness of it all, the likely pecking order in Abu Dhabi remains impossible to predict – setting up a thrilling prospect as F1 2009 gets set to bring down the final curtain on a classic campaign.

Crash.net’s Tip for the Top: Sebastian Vettel

Crash.net’s One to Watch: Adrian Sutil