It is a bit difficult to see anything from the back seat of a Formula One car at 185mph, never mind the hotel that towers over the circuit and the blazing floodlights that have turned a desert night into day. Not so much a blur as being poured into a washing machine on the fast spin cycle, eyeballs vibrating while you attempt to stop your head from banging against the sides of the claustrophobic cockpit.

David Coulthard could see everything, which was a blessing because he was driving around the new Yas Marina Circuit for the first time. Where Coulthard and his severely shaken passenger blazed a trail, Jenson Button and Formula One will follow this weekend for the first Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Button, as with Coulthard, will have a front-row seat and, even at his blistering speed, will have the chance to glance up at the five-star Yas Hotel as he drives between its two extravagant buildings and study the concrete, steel and glass stands with their corporate boxes that look as if they have been plucked straight from an English Premier League football stadium.

If he and his rivals are impressed, they are meant to be. Abu Dhabi has made Yas Marina its entertainment showpiece, a massive £30 billion development rising from the sand with Formula One at its heart. The capital of the Emirates is said to have paid Bernie Ecclestone, Formula One’s commercial rights-holder, up to £50 million for this year alone to hold the race — a sum that would build half of the now failed Donington project to host the British Grand Prix.

Donington is an historic circuit that sweeps through what was Leicestershire farmland, but Yas Marina rises out of a flat, desert landscape — Ecclestone’s Frankenstein-like Formula One clone, created by Abu Dhabi’s desire to join the sporting elite.

With the money thrown at the circuit, it was always going to be glitzy. The real test is whether it can provide racing and spectacle on a level that will tempt a worldwide television audience jaded bv clinical, new circuits with their empty seats and antiseptic atmosphere.

Will that include Abu Dhabi? Hard to say from my vantage point behind Coulthard, although there will be one new twist with the race starting in the evening. Harsh desert light will fade to be overtaken by floodlights for what everyone hopes will be an epic finale to a stirring season. That is assuming that all the drivers get to the end after their initial surprise, as I discovered when Coulthard floored the throttle of our two-seater Formula One car.

The pit exit is a steep descent into a tunnel with sharp, left-hander before you emerge onto the track. How many drivers next weekend will overcook that exit and end up a shattered mess against the sheer wall that confronts them?

The second surprise is for guests at the 500-bedroom Yas Hotel: not only do the cars emerge from underneath them, but they blast between the hotel’s two buildings, under a footbridge from where guests will be able to see the action.

Which is more than I could. The sheer violence of a Formula One car is an experience to cherish because there is nothing like it. Worse still, this was something of a speculative outing for Coulthard in a car he had never driven before, on a circuit he had not been on and with my chump between him and the roaring 750-horsepower Cosworth engine.

From the start line, we speed through a couple of kinks and into a tricky chicane that ruins an overtaking opportunity, down to a hairpin and then we hit what is claimed to be the longest straight in Formula One, a three-quarters-of-a-mile blast to seventh gear and 185mph for us, more like 200mph for Button and his rivals.

Then, I have to hang on as Coulthard stands hard on the brakes, sending my internal organs crushing against the seat belt. This is probably the best place to attack — especially for Lewis Hamilton, whose McLaren Mercedes is equipped with Kers, the energy-recovery system that will give him a boost in horsepower down to the sharp left-hander that awaits.

And there were still 13 more turns of the lap to go and five more laps of this gasp-inducing, high-speed torture. Coulthard was as impressed with the track as I was with his deft handling of an alien Formula One car. No wonder he won 13 grands prix.

We got round in under two minutes, mainly thanks to the weight penalty of my lump. (Note to self — give up pies.) Button should get around 20 seconds faster, a mind-blowing time to a back-seat Formula One driver.