Abu Dhabi: Lewis Hamilton’s domination of the Formula One championship this season has been such that it looks like he will run away with the title well before the season-ending Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix at the Yas Marina Circuit here on November 27 to 29.

Defending champion Hamilton’s forceful drive to victory in Japan last weekend has extended his lead in the world championship to 48 points over Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg, and 59 ahead of Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel.

With just five races remaining and Mercedes clearly in command, it looks increasingly likely to be an unassailable advantage.

Unlike last year, when the F1 governing body introduced a controversial double-points rule for the season-ending race in a bid to keep the title race interesting, this season is back to normal.

However, Yas Marina CEO Al Tareq Al Ameri is not perturbed and is confident the event will once again be a smash hit, even if the championship battle has already been decided.

Gulf News caught up with Al Ameri, who is completing two years in his role, on the sidelines of the Yas Marina Circuit 2015-2016 season calendar launch.

Excerpts:

You will be completing two years in office soon, so how has your journey been so far?

The journey has been exciting, challenging, and at times stressful. There are a lot of things that go into to hosting an event like Formula One. We have a strong team at the Yas Marina Circuit and also a good support system of stakeholders, which make it a lot easier. We are very much on track to host a good and exciting event this year.

What has been the biggest challenge?

The biggest challenge was to comprehend the level of activity. For example, the day we start planning the event is the next day after the previous event. I think we start just after a week off and then work the entire year to prepare an event like this. Throughout the year we have to deal with different sectors and the level of activities has become higher with every passing year.

What are the major changes we can expect in the 2015-16 season?

We have launched exciting products, some more events and one of that is DriveYas. It will be a fixed weekly offering for driving experiences so people can book and get the experience. Earlier, it was getting very difficult for clients to pre-book as the number of slots were not sufficient. Most of the time it was sold out, but now we have chalked out a plan to make it available.

If Hamilton seals the title well before the finale here, will the race lose its sheen now that the double points rule has been removed?

To start with I would say Hamilton hasn’t won it. The guy is talented and he has a good team around him, but it is not over yet. It is still open. The double points were introduced because we wanted fan involvement. What we care about is fan involvement and last year we tried the double point thing and I think it paid off by keeping the excitement level till the end. We have hosted the event when the championship was sealed before, but still it did not take anything away from the event itself. We will see how it goes this year.

Are you still happy to keep the last race here in Abu Dhabi?

The finale has been very good for us. To me it suits and fits the venue as it helps us to close off the season in a big, festive way. The fans love it, the teams love it and so do we. The climate is perfect at that time of the year.

How have ticket sales for F1 been so far?

It has been great. Some of the areas have been sold out and others are on the verge of being sold out. We are confident it will be a full house. We have launched a lot of packages and people have shown an interest in availing them. As the day for the race nears, I’m sure we will achieve our target and we are quite excited and upbeat for this year’s race.

Any plans for hosting MotoGP as there has been lot of talk about it for a while now?

I’m not excluding anything at the movement and also not committing anything as well. Here at the circuit we always investigate and evaluate different events which will benefit Yas Marina Circuit and Abu Dhabi. So you never know.