I'm wondering if there will be good overtaking opportunities next race in Abu Dhabi. In the past I thought that Valencia was good enough, wide and long straights. But no, not much overtaking at all. In Brazil, as we witnessed yesterday, there were alot of overtakings and opportunities. What exactly is it that makes it possible? The guy at Abu Dhabi said they will have the longest straight in F1. That could be, but will it bring better racing?

The tunnel is after the pit exit line - I want to see some overtaking in the tunnel.................................................

That's not an answer... but, thanks for contributing.

We had a lot of overtaking in Brazil because so many qualified lower than their cars were capable of. If qualifying runs as norm then don't set your expectations too high.

No I don't believe there will be much over taking since there are to many idiots in F1 that are aloud to simply swipe across the track and break other drivers wings when they threaten to over take, so no I don't think there'll be much overtaking no matter how long the straights are.
I'm sure we will see some brave soles who will end up driving back to the pits with a broken front wing, that seems to float some F1 fans boats.

Slipstreaming + late late braking + multiple lines + different setups (wet vs. dry) + different fuel loads/strategies.

Actually there wasn't a lot of passing, most of the passing was either via KERS or via restarts or via pit exit low temperature tires.

it has so many corners i think it could be another valencia i hope not! either way button can make a pass somewhere

Sadly it's true. It's the main reason the racing in Speedcar sucked so much.
At the old Monza/Silverstone/Hockenheim/Spa/Rheims/AVUS/Montlhéry in the old days people didn't block or cut the slipstream; if they were slower they would simply allow the faster car to pass.
Unless blocking won't be banned there's no solution that will work.

are there any pics of this track.

Yeah I also noticed that there was no blocking in the arguably greatest fight of aal time, the one with Gilles and Arnoux at Dijon. Still, an amzing fight. So if people are arguing that there won't be fights without blocking; they're wrong.

Maybe like someone said it's the amount of corners that has something to do with it. Valencia and abu dhabi have like 24 corners, and brazil only like 12. Also the funny thing is that in Brazil the best overtaking opportunities don't involve hairpins.

did speedcar upgrade the brakes? in nascar they have inadiquate brakes, basicaly, they wont last the race if you use them as you would in f1...

and we seem to get more overtaking from long sweeping flat out turns than from really long straights...

It's often easier to pass into a corner with a wide corner entry and a late apex. This allows you to stick your car up the inside preventing the other car to take his line no matter how much you then have to slow to make it around the corner. I believe this is precisely why the two corners at brazil are quite conducive to overtaking.
A hairpin is often a harder place to pass into as the apex is often at best at the centre of the corner and the leading driver will tend to turn in earlier. Even if you do get up the inside with a lunge - it is far harder to block the middle part of the corner or get enough drive off the exit to stop the guy repassing you.
Sadly this seems to be lost on Herman Tilke.

Also check Monza 67, 69, 71.

Brakes are upgraded in NASCAR too.

In Speedcar they also came with a lower grip tires later on, to allow more sliding, more wheelspin and longer brake distances.
But that failed miserably because more wheelspin and sliding meant more tire trunking/marbles witch reduced the rubber-line/usable lines from the track. When drivers went outside of the rubber line they lost too much grip and thus couldn't pull the pass.

Barcelona has a long straight, doesn't mean overtaking is great there. Sepang has two long straights, but it has some tricky corners involved, not much side by side racing there. No passing on the very long pit lane straight.

I think that the turns leading up to the straight, as well as the one immediately at the end of the straight, have a bigger impact. They must be clean (no dust) to allow late braking, the must allow side by side racing lines for the next 2 or 3 corners without much speed difference between alternative lines, etc.