F1 race winner David Coulthard has hit out at the 'silly' pitlane exit tunnel of the newly-built Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi, host of the inaugural Abu Dhabi Grand Prix this weekend in the Middle East. The Scot was one of the first to drive around the track last week when he was driving a two-seater F1 car, and has warned drivers to be cautious when coming out on-track.

The pitlane exit cuts under the apex of turn one to the inside of the circuit, before rejoining the track at the right-hander of turn three. A tight, narrow and winding tunnel guides the drivers under the track, and with little room for error it could be the scene of an accident or two over the course of the weekend. Driver will meet the end of the pitlane speed limit zone before the tunnel, meaning they will be pushing to make up time through the tight left-hander.

“That sort of thing [the pit exit], you can look at it and say it is challenging, but the bottom line is that it is actually a bit silly,” British website Autosport is quoting David Coulthard as saying. “It is the width of a car and it is a 90-degree left at the bottom of a tunnel after a blind hill.

“It is one of the things - the FIA stipulates this amount of run-off everywhere around the track but they don't specify pit in and pit out. So you could say let's put some landmines in the wall! It is a bit silly.”

Driver voiced concern over the pitlane entry at Spa-Francorchamps a number of years ago when the circut was revamped. Similar to Abu Dhabi's pit exit, Spa's entry was narrow and lined with concrete walls. Despite their concerns however, there has not yet been an accident.

“Will we know [how tight it is]? No, because there won't be a camera there. Could there be an incident? Yes. Will there be? Probably not,” Coulthard continued, who is now a pundit alongside Eddie Jordan for the BBC.

“It is one of those things that if you practice it all day you could probably pick up half a second, but in the overall scheme of things, is that half a second going to make a difference between winning or losing the grand prix? If it was really tight of course it could, but probably it will not.

“So I would err on the side of caution, having found out very early in my career just how costly pit-ins and pit-outs can be! I only made that mistake once,” he said, referring to his crash in the pitlane at the 1995 Australian Grand Prix.

Drivers will get their first taste of the new circuit during first practice for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, which starts at 13.00 local time (09.00 GMT) on Friday.