Pack up and ship out

Watching a Formula One team gear up for the massive logistical effort it takes to get its equipment to a GP circuit anywhere in the world is nothing short of spectacular. A visit to the AT&T Williams Team headquarters in the serene Oxfordshire countryside shortly before the Brazilian Grand Prix afforded a glimpse beneath the surface - if the gorgeous F1 cars that sit on the grid are swan-like in their beauty, then here was the furious paddling beneath the surface. Dozens of team mechanics in overalls were hot-footing around a factory floor so clean you could eat your breakfast off it, slaloming between the packing crates and palettes half-full with starting motors, fuel rigs and countless other parts in various states of assembly. Organised chaos was the phrase that sprung to mind. And all the while there was a palpable sense of excitement in the air, carried on the high-pitched note of the car engines screaming under last minute checks. It's the culmination of everything the team works towards all year round, a sense of 'here we go!'

It's a tried and tested formula that can't afford to fail. Each team that competes in the FIA Formula One World Championship does this 17 times a year in preparation for race weekends, and that's not counting the test sessions, where they put the car through its paces on circuits that closest resemble the particular GP they're readying for - in the case of Brazil's São Paulo circuit the test ground is Silverstone. An F1 team travels some 160,000km a year between races and tests.

AT&T Williams Team Chief Operating Officer Alex Burns discussed the logistics of all this travel from his office overlooking the shop-floor mayhem.

"Formula One is unique - the World Cup and the Olympics are every four years. F1 has a frenzied local and a fanatical global audience 17 times a year. It's phenomenal," he told us.

As COO Alex is responsible for all the facilities at AT&T Williams. That includes the wind tunnel facility, which as for any F1 team is the key test area, plus all the production facilities - a lot of the component part production is done in-house because it's the quickest way to get the parts to the car - as well as the usual HR, IT and procurement responsibilities of any COO.

"I'm responsible for taking the designs that Technical Director Sam Michael's group produces and getting those to the point where they can leave this facility. Then the separate logistic activities for the race and test teams kick in, and all the packaging up and transporting that this involves."

The team takes four trucks to European grands prix - you've no doubt seen them on race-day TV coverage in the paddocks, wearing the team livery and sponsor logos - laden with about 25 tonnes of cars and garage equipment. It's a similar set-up for test sessions, but slightly smaller - three trucks will go to a two-car test session. Most of the testing is done in Spain.

"We take three cars to each race. Sometimes we'll take a spare chassis too, that could be built up into a car if needs be - Monaco would be a circuit where we'd do this because it's very tight and it's easy for a driver to hit the barriers in practice - and then you need to have your spare car ready for Sunday."

For 'flyaways' - that's what F1 insiders call the non-European races - the logistical effort is considerably more complicated. Everything needed to operate and service the cars in the field is trucked to the airport, usually Stansted, where it is consolidated, along with all the equipment of the other teams, onto freight planes chartered by Formula One Management and flown to its destination.

The difficulty between flyaway races - like the current F1 season run-in, ending with Brazil, Japan and China - is getting parts such as gearboxes back and serviced in time for the next race.

"Japan and China are what we call back-to-backs, because there's only a week between them. Everything will be stripped down after Japan and sent straight to China - there's no time to bring them back here."

Of course, there's the logistics of the hospitality effort to bear in mind too. "Our major sponsors, like RBS, will be taking guests to grands prix, so we have a role to play there, to making sure everything runs smoothly. For our sponsors, it's not just a matter of having their name and logo on the car - we have a marketing team that helps to service their needs. Obviously their backing is crucial - it's their investment in the sponsorship that underpins our investment in developing the cars. It's a vital part of our income: we have to decide how best to invest it."

Downstairs on the shop floor, very much in the thick of things, was AT&T Williams Race Team Coordinator Paul Singlehurst. "I'm in charge of all the equipment and assisting in the movements of the people". That's 65-75 people representing the team at each grand prix event.

While we spoke Paul's team was working towards getting everything on a Boeing 747 cargo plane due to leave London Stansted for Brazil in less than 24 hours time. The pressure was on, but Paul was at ease - it was something he'd done again and again.

Some of the essential equipment is sent by sea freight too. Items that are bulky or heavy are cheaper and easier to send by sea freight than by air. These items then join up with the airfreight at the circuit.

"We send about five and a half tonnes by sea and we send this three months in advance of each race. It's mainly heavy electrical cables, gear that's cheap to buy but heavy and expensive to transport. It costs around $9000 to send it by sea - that's a fraction of the airfreight cost. We've made some huge savings just by doing this over the last three years."

Eight truckies carry out the majority of the packing and loading, with the help of the mechanics when they've finished working on the cars and carrying out their last minute checks. Rather than use conventional aircraft containers, teams create their own specially designed cargo crates, designed to fill all available space in the planes' holds, "Everyone knows where everything goes, everyone has a set job," explained Paul. His team also sends all communications equipment too - the secure data links that connect the team to its base, enabling telemetry and other data to be sent directly back, which in turn allows engineers to study any potential problems, even during the race.

What's Paul's worst fear? "We only need a plane to go technical! Because they're so heavy they can only fly about eight hours, then need to sit down somewhere and refuel. That's when problems can arise. Ultimately if we lose time then, we have to work around the clock to make up for it at the circuit."

How difficult is it to get the team from the Japanese GP to the Chinese GP the following weekend? "Basically the race will be finished by four o'clock, we'll get the cars back by 7pm and we can pack it all in four hours. By 11pm on the Sunday night after the Japanese race, everything will be packed, and paletted, including the cars, and ready to fly directly to China on Monday morning, where it all starts again. There's an awful lot of work to do on these 'double-headers'. And we always say there's no such thing as jet lag - we just have to fight through it."

As if the jet lag wasn't enough, there are one or two specific problems that face an F1 team within China. For example, did you know that an international license doesn't cover you to drive in China? Despite passing a Chinese driving test, they couldn't get insurance, and so have to hire Chinese drivers. But on the plus side, "The hotel was awesome, probably one of the best hotels we stay in all year. The Four Seasons in Shanghai. If you ever go to Shanghai. That is the hotel to stay in."

So next time you see a AT&T Williams Team car on the grid, with the engine revving, the heat shimmer rising from the track and thousands of spectators waving flags, you'll know it's been another successful day at the office for Alex Burns and Paul Singlehurst.