The 2014 Formula One season wraps up this weekend in Abu Dhabi. For some (like Mercedes, which cinched the constructor’s championship a while back and is a lock for the driver's championship), it will be time to celebrate. For others (like Caterham, which is so far in the hole it relied upon crowdfunding to complete the season), it will be a time to ponder the future. But for scores of team logisticians and DHL employees, it will be a time to relax, because they will no longer be in a mad dash to pack and ship 22 cars and a few hundred tons of equipment to the next race.
Formula 1 is many things: an elaborate show, an engineering extravaganza and a logistical nightmare. There are 19 races held over eight months on six continents. The turnaround from one race to the next can be as short as one week. Each of the 11 teams will travel about 62,000 miles during the season, bringing with it two cars and roughly 50 tons of stuff. You name it and they're probably hauling it, from spare parts to the pots and pans used in the catering trailers. It's enough to fill six Boeing 747 jumbo jets, and it keeps an army of people on the road for as many as 200 days a year.
The work starts about three hours after the checkered flag falls. Once the cars have been through the post-race inspection (to ensure teams haven't done anything illegal to gain a competitive edge), team mechanics strip it to the last component. The engine and gearbox are removed, along with the front and rear wings, mirrors and suspension parts. Each is placed within its own foam-slotted box. But sometimes custom-fitted foam and an anvil-tough case isn't enough, says McLaren’s Alan Field, the team’s trackside support manager. In that case, McLaren turns to another tool: humble but steadfast bubble wrap. It’s especially good for protecting painted surfaces, which is a prime concern because no one wants to see that glorious silvery-chrome paint or a sponsor's logo scuffed. The chassis is protected by its own custom-made cover, and placed within its own case. “You wouldn’t recognize it if you saw it packed up,” Field says.
All of this happens come hell or high water (literally). The show must go on, as the saying goes, and F1 is no exception. This can be a headache if the next race is the following weekend (F1 typically schedules races at least two weeks apart, there are four back-to-back grands prix weekends on the 2014 calendar). In those cases, everything has to be at the next track within 36 hours so teams have enough time to reassemble the cars and get everything sorted before practice begins Friday. This can require moving everything from, say, Malaysia to Bahrain in a matter of days. Depending on which way everyone and everything is headed, time zones can relax or tighten the schedule by several hours.
Invariably, something comes up. Sometimes it's a small inconvenience, but sometimes it's a colossal nightmare like Typhoon Phanfone, which clobbered Japan during the Japanese Grand Prix. Everyone was working under miserable conditions---strong winds, torrential rain and poor visibility---but with the inaugural Russian Grand Prix just one week away in Sochi, they had to buckle down and suck it up. “You can’t just stop what you’re doing because of the weather,” Field says. “You’ve just got to crack on.”
Nonetheless, delays happen, and sometimes teams are left with less time than usual to get everything ready for the next race. That means longer hours, and sometimes bringing in extra help from the factory back home.
The cars may get the most care, but there are several dozen tons of equipment to be packed and shipped. Each team carries enough spare parts to rebuild their cars, 40 sets of tires, 2,500 liters of fuel, 200 liters of motor oil and 90 liters of coolant. And then there are the tools. And the computers. And enough food to make as many as 200 meals, plus all the stuff needed to prepare those meals. And... and... the list goes on. All told, the biggest teams may be hauling as much as 50 tons of gear, and even the smallest outfits are schlepping 30 tons of stuff.
It takes between three and six hours for the teams to pack it all up. Then it's all handed over to DHL, which has to get everything to the next city. That's no less complicated. A fleet of seven jumbo jets does the bulk of the work, flying stuff, in some cases, halfway around the world. A fleet of trucks hauls it all from the airport to the track, which can be a matter of minutes in the case of Malaysia or a few hours in the case of Brazil. When the action is in Europe, where there are shorter distances between tracks, DHL will truck stuff instead.
Although there is a routine to it all, there are quirks to each race or track. “All the breakdowns on each operation have some particularities,” says Pier Luigi Ferrari, DHL’s motorsport deputy managing director. They key to making it all go smoothly is planning, planning, and more planning. Preparations begin a year ahead of time, and extra attention is paid to new venues like the Sochi Autodrom that hosted the inaugural Russian Grand Prix this year. Ferrari says his team of roughly 80 people needs the long lead time to nail down every last detail, from what the roads are like to how to negotiate the customs bureaucracy. There can be a monumental amount of red tape.
“Some countries are more closed, more difficult,” he says. Any food taken into China, Malaysia, or Singapore, for example, must first be fumigated and certified to ensure to ensure invasive species or other creatures aren’t hitching a ride. It's a hassle, yes, but not insurmountable given enough advance notice. “Our timing, our schedules do not allow us not to be prepared,” Ferrari says.
Not everything goes by air. Teams typically have five or six sets of common parts---things like work benches, tool trolleys and the like, along with stuff like PR and marketing material---and send them by sea. It's slower, but given enough sets, the teams can send them weeks in advance so they arrive in plenty of time.
But the nature of Formula One makes perfect planning impossible. As race day approaches, teams inevitably make changes to their cars, or find themselves in need of a spare part left at their home base. Something always comes up at the last minute, and “we have to be prepared as usual,” Ferrari says. The moment an order comes in, DHL dispatches someone to fulfill it and get it on the next plane out. Even last-minute requests can be delivered to the track within 24 to 36 hours. But in F1, where everything is measured in thousandths of a second, Ferrari's crew is always looking for ways to save time.
“Usually it’s given to us today,” Ferrari says. “And they expect it yesterday.”
