End of F1 race starts another to be ready for Brazil

From searching for a missing gearbox amid suitcases on an airport runway to freight falling off the side of supertankers, the logistical challenge of transporting the Formula One circus around the world is not plain sailing. Before the chequered flag had even stopped waving, announcing Lewis Hamilton as the winner of the 2011 Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, the 12 F1 teams had begun the arduous task of packing up the paddock and directing its contents towards Brazil. Yet such is the scale of the operation that five days later, the pack-down at Yas Marina Circuit continues apace. Because of the three-day Young Drivers Test that finished Thursday, the pack-down has had to be completed in stints. This is known in the industry as "trickle packing". "Having the test after the race means there is less pressure to get the equipment out on Sunday and Monday," said Geoff Simmonds, the race coordinator for Lotus-Renault. "That makes a pleasant change, but we still have to be structured because obviously we have to get as much away as possible without jeopardising the test in any way. Catering, hospitality and sponsorship infrastructure was all dispatched immediately after Sunday's race, but the testing programme resulted in much of the equipment within the team garages remaining in the paddock. The transportation of these contents, including the cars, is handled by Formula One Management (FOM), the company managed by Bernie Ecclestone. "Teams bring a lot of gear with them that is for events going on around the race," Mark Hughes, the operations director at Yas, said. "So all the sponsors' equipment, promotional collateral, hospitality, all of that is gone pretty quickly - either on Sunday or Monday." As Yas Marina uses its own medical vehicles during the testing programme, the two F1 safety cars were dispatched earlier in the week. FOM took them to the airport on Tuesday evening. By 11pm Thursday, containers filled with exhausts and engines, nose cones and steering wheels were ready to be sent to Abu Dhabi International Airport, where they will be dispatched today by air to Sao Paulo ahead of the Brazilian Grand Prix, which takes place next weekend. Shipments will continue to be sent by air for the next three days, said a staff-member at FOM, who asked to remain anonymous. "We take care of the entire air operation and it is our responsibility to safely transport the cargo from Abu Dhabi to Brazil," he said. "But exactly how we do that, we would rather not say. "It's a private issue." On arrival in Brazil, the freight is taken by DHL to the circuit at Interlagos. "The big pressure is to get all the equipment to Brazil," Simmonds said. "Brazil is a lot different from Abu Dhabi in that there is no space in the paddock. It's extremely tight and the garage space is small, which presents more problems and slows down the unpacking process as that end." A large paddock is not the only reason operating at Yas Marina is made easier. With the airport only a 15-minute drive away, it cuts transportation time. "It's great having the circuit so close to the airport - that helps us and the freight-handling people considerably. It's a far cry from Korea, where it takes six hours to get from the circuit to Seoul airport," Simmonds said. As well as air freight being sent to South America, an Etihad flight packed with used equipment - hydraulics, car parts, suspensions - departed in the early hours of this morning bound for England. It will reach the team factories this afternoon, where it will be quickly serviced before being turned around and sent to Brazil. It will be in the paddock at Interlagos by Thursday. At Force India, five identical 40-foot containers weighing roughly five tonnes spend the majority of their existence at sea, floating from race to race. One of them, filled with sponsors' material, ovens, fridges and other equipment, left the UAE by sea earlier this week.