The incredible logistics of Formula 1 - with DHL + Alfa Romeo

[MUSIC] There isn't another sport that travels around the world quite like Formula One. From Bahrain, Australia and the USA to Great Britain, Singapore and Mexico. F1 drops in on its millions of fans in every corner of the planet, bringing 20 of the greatest racing drivers on Earth along for the ride. But it isn't just the drivers who travel. If anything, despite them having a tendency to mow in every now and then, trust me, racing drivers like a moan, they're the easiest things to transport. So this week, F1 explains how we travel across the planet with, well, everything else really. Hello, my name is Christian Yu-Gil. And I'm Katie Osborne. And every week we find answers to your questions about the incredible world of Formula One racing. And we love it when you record those questions and send them to us. That's what these two did. Hi, Katie and Christian. My name is Danny and I am from Seattle, Washington. Hi, my name is Alex Nicholson. I'm from Redding, England, but live in Austin, Massachusetts and the USA. With the amount of moving parts over a race weekend, who or what team is in charge of all the logistics? Is there a director of operations? Is there one for the race itself and does each team have one? How does everyone know where they need to be when? How does the logistics of Formula One work? I am curious. Thanks so much. Love your podcast. Thank you very much. We've also had questions on this from Miranda in North Dakota. Nancy and Niagara Falls. Danielle in Edinburgh. Aswin in India. Jocelyn in Vancouver. Todd from Maryland. Preston in Washington, DC. Paul from Alberta and many, many more. Christian, I just kind of feel like we just read it from the back of the grid to the front of the grid. That was a lot of fun. It was fun. And considering how bad I am, pronouncing names of places, that could have gone a lot worse as well. That was all right. Yeah, you did pretty well. Thank you. A plus. Yes, anyway, they have all asked questions about the logistics of Formula One. How all the stuff needed to race in the sport is moved from one country to another, sometimes in a matter of days. Now, what goes into taking this traveling motorsport circus all around the world? It's fascinating and it's being done more sustainably than ever before. We will dig into all of that in just a minute. But first, don't forget you can send us your questions on anything that you would like. If it's F1 related, we'll answer it. Write some words or send a voice note to [email protected]. That's our email address. It is indeed. And we just wanted to say thank you so much for all your questions for our first ever F1 Explains Live show at the US Grand Prix in Austin, Texas. Who knows, you might be listening to this on your way to the race or the way home. If you didn't manage to make it to the circuit of the America's, don't worry. The live show will be on this feed very soon. Make sure you hit follow or subscribe and you won't miss out. And speaking of travel, that's the point of this episode really. You asked us how F1 moves around the world and we're going to answer. We'll be dropping in on one of our teams and big friends of F1 Explains shortly. First to accompany you are a constant presence on roads all over the world, DHL. Yeah, Christian DHL is the global partner of Formula One and have been for almost 40 years. So let's start by looking at how they get things to the track. Paul Fowler is a company's head of motorsports logistics. Paul, welcome to F1 Explains. Paul, let's start off very broadly. What exactly does DHL do for Formula One? We move every single key load to every single race of 23, 24 races. We're going up to from continent to continent, from European race to European race. Paul, we always are guided by our listeners on this podcast. Our listeners are very curious about Formula One and we answer those questions. And you might be surprised. You might not be surprised to know just how many we've had on the sort of logistics side of Formula One. So starting off with Nancy in Niagara Falls and Jocelyn in Vancouver, who come from different parts of the world, presumably Nancy sent her question via a waterproof phone. But Nancy asks how all the F1 paddock is transported and Jocelyn wants to know what means of transportation is used. We use every mode for every single race. So there will be sea freight, there will be arriving as a first wave of the facepseps of equipment that the teams have. So that arrives ahead of the race. We'll have trucking locally because sustainable was a big must in our planning today. So anything that we can regionalize will be trucked in. And then finally for all the urgent equipment, especially on an air freight or an international lake, there will be seven, seven, seven, sevens that will be bringing equipment to the race. Now suppose the next logical question to that then Paul is, what is in all these boxes, whether it's on boats on sea freight in the sky, what stuff are you bringing to Formula One? So the first equipment is the real hardware that can be replicated from wiring to garage dress to the overhead gantry's, etc, etc. And all of that goes sea freight because it's heavy, it's bulky and it can be replicated. The part that's air-frated is the technical, the computer that then plugs into these docking stations. And that's the only way that they could really build it and the timescales that they do. So the last part is the car's equipment, essential parts. And that includes arguably the most important part of Formula One Paul. The car does it, DHL has an active role in getting cars from race to race. Absolutely, the cars fly to every single race, definitely. And a question I must a lot, Paul, about Formula One's globe trotting tendencies, is are these cars flown as one would expect to see them on track and it gets rolled out or are they broken down completely? I've been in just as a backdrop, I've been in the business 37 years, a man and boy. We used to ship them on double stack car racks as cars and they used to be three per team. So there was a whole racking system, especially built to fill in the aircraft. Nowadays, because of the technicalities and the amount of spares that are sent back after the race, these are broken down really to the top, the central part that the driver sits in. And then they go into what's known as a track check. And then on top of that, all of the spares are sent back for rebuilding, servicing, and then back out to the race in between races. So it's a whole logistic trail. But the car is now today and also to your question, but in that, it is our ships now in a broken down state. Can I ask a really stupid question, here, Paul? Because as soon as you talk about that, my mind goes to whenever you move. I fairly recently moved. You're putting all your stuff that's worth money. Yeah, and you're wrapping it up. In anything you can get your hands on, a towel. I'll put this towel over the telling because in the event of an accident, my towel will give it some form of protection. How on earth do you make sure these things keep safe? Because Formula One cars are of almost priceless in their worth. It just, as one of life's warriors, Paul, strikes fears an awful lot of pressure to make sure these things get there in one piece. Yeah, over the years, especially now with a sustainable push, we've gone to triple sevens. So there are special containers that are made. I mean, that they are one of another word, Sheds. But everyone knows how much they feel in their shed. So all of the equipment is lined up. Hacked very carefully. They have phone line boxes, etc. with the shape of the wing, the front wing, etc. that they slot in so they can't move for transport. And then they are loaded into these track sheds, broke Sheds. And then we pick them up as units and they are wrapped, knetted and go straight to the airline. So the handling is really team-based and then hand over to us for movement. Formula One travels around the world in protective Sheds. I love it. You're not getting that on any other podcast. Now, garages where you see teams do their pick stops, tend to be permanent fixtures at racetrack. The motor homes, the hospitality units, are shipped to the European races. But what we call in Formula One, the flyaway racers at Bahrain, Abu Dhabi, Austin, they have buildings either provided for them or permanent buildings for the motor homes there. So those motor homes that we just talked about aren't going all around the world, are they? Well, they're just going to the European races. That's correct. I mean, they send by seed freight along the corporate dress. You get the same, you get the same corporate feel, the same race team feel. So those permanent buildings will be dressed in the liverys and the sponsors, etc. Now, that is all shipped. That's all goes by seed freight. And as we move to an attempt to go regionalization in a sustainable format, which is becoming a big part of our push and our decision process, there are more trucking and some of the teams are looking now to house them out in those regions so that we truck them in. So I would imagine that over a period of time you may see some motor homes feature in some of the international races, depending on the track. Obviously, we're going to Vegas, for example. That's not a permanent track. So it would work there. But some of them, as you say, are permanent concrete buildings. So you can't replace that with a motor home. So depending on the track, but we are looking at that as part of our sustainable push. And we'll talk about sustainability in just a second poll. I want to come back to that. But before we move on to that, just briefly summarize them, what sort of things, if you were to make a little bit of a list that DHL is, is potting in whether it's trucks on the road, whether it's seed freight or whether it's in the air, what sort of things are you bringing from race to race? Well, we say everything. The simple. answers everything because it literally is exactly that. We move the whole entire team. We provide support and uplift for all the television equipment. So the former one TV village currently at tires fuel support races of F2F3 when they go there. So it's the entire circus is moved by us. There's obviously some consumable parts like water etc. that's also naturally and that makes sense to do so. But the actual hardware of a team is moved by their child. Paul, let's go to some of our listeners questions and we've had loads about this. Too many to mention some apologies if you sent this question in if we were to listen or would be here all day. But basically a lot of questions asking about F1's push to become more sustainable. You see Formula One talk about it awful lot. The green banners at the side of the racetracks. Obviously DHLs working with F1 to help reduce the carbon footprint at the sport. It's something we'll all try to do across the world. How's DHL helping with F1's push on this pool? We're absolutely involved at the base with every decision and we were really closely with F1 to achieve that. Obviously logistics is one of the biggest emission producers be that people and be that logistics are moving the freight around. So in air we're introducing more and more triple sevens including our own fleet which reduces the carbon footprint. In marine we're in setting our offsetting using cleaner biofuels and now for Europe. We've introduced a concept as much as we can with with tracking. So we've introduced we've got 20 new biofuels trucks 18 deployed for Formula One TV. So they're 83% cleaner than than last year and that's kind of set the standard where the teams are now coming to us. There are logistic restraints where it's not available. So everyone talks about infrastructure when we talk about electric cars. The same applies for for HVOGENT 2 is not rolled out and available in all corners of Europe at the moment. So we have to find trick solutions for that. Even some more things about production we made sure they had 850 liter double size fuel tanks so they get extra range. So there's a lot of things like that that we're doing in the background that will roll out and will keep introducing them as we go forward. And it's weird where where the focus was on cost or on ability to do the jump which you kind of risk to the race. The race has got to happen. Sustainability is woven amongst all of that today. So we have to make a sort of like every answer I have to answer three questions now and sustainable sustainability is at the top of it. And you mentioned some specific planes there Paul. Is it seven seven seven? Did I get that right? I don't know as much about planes as I know about Formula One cars have to be honest. Yeah it's a triple seven freight rail. So if you ever travel on a triple seven or if you sit and look at the back of your seat and you're reaching on the aircraft in Finland on next time you're in a triple seven the whole of that top deck you're sitting is removed and it's pure cargo. And that is more fuel efficient I presume. Those aircrafts are more fuel efficient and we've moved away from the seven four seven. I think it's 14% more efficient than a seven four seven. There's something that you mentioned earlier Paul is sea freight and famously it takes longer to get to somewhere via the sea than it does via the sky. How far in advance are ships setting off because I imagine that it is heavy stuff that's being shipped and as I say imagine that's not making the journey at a massive speed. No the average vessel will be running at about 20 knots an hour. So slow. So the longest trip we've got is Melbourne 42 days. We plan now the calendars out now. So we're already planning with the teams whether to send directly from the last race being Abu Dhabi some of their equipment regionalizing some in Bahrain or sending direct to the next race. So as soon as the calendars published we start looking at the end of 2023 to roll it forward to 2024. Most teams have six sets one team has five sets of this equipment and we kind of dovetail it and move it around from from three or four launch pads from from the globe. And once we're in position normally we can hit a race with with 10 days at sea time. So 10 10 transit days at sea plus the the collection of the delivery the customs part agent. So we can hit most events within a two two three week window but the longest ones obviously you can't decrease the size of the earth. So 42 days and seven weeks is the Melbourne transit. Okay there's a number of things I have assessed with here. The first for those who haven't got their sea legs 20 knots is roughly about 23 miles per hour. That's about 37 kilometers an hour. So again that's fairly slow and they are going for 40 odd days across the world. It's astonishing. And Paul does what you just said there mean effectively that it's possible for some of this freight to finish at the last race of the season in Abu Dhabi and then immediately start its journey to Bahrain for round one of the next season. Yes well that happens today and it's been happening for a few of the years so there's not really a stop to the season. They pack it now in a way with you've got some not freight and they use a word dumb freight but it's not it's stuff that doesn't need to be checked or changed or tweaked or delivery applied if it's a sponsor item. So some of the equipment will come back and be refreshed and then turned around and some will go on to the next races. Formula one never stops. This machine just never stops. It's always moving. It's amazing. Formula one freight doesn't get a Christmas break unbelievable. And I imagine it's quite a puzzle Paul to get everything you know very mindless the different modes of transport the different teams. I imagine it's a bit of a puzzle to make sure it all arrives at the same time and same place when it needs to. It's weird you should say that we say grown up Tetris so there you go. There's the hole to your puzzle. It's all coming out and we know it can be put together and we know it can come out in in the right place. So grown up Tetris that that kind of the calendar dictates the the size of the movement but that's it when you when you look at Singapore to Japan in a week you know nine hundred ten of freight 120 C freight containers etc. It's a huge move and it's what you said right at the beginning you know fans turn the TV off after the Singapore race and one week later or five days later for the for the free practice one they're turning the TV on in its all in Japan. We have a question from Preston in Washington DC he says what's the biggest challenge of moving F one round the world and what's the craziest thing a team moves for a race weekend. Okay challenge for us is always is time obviously the the race is happening the calendar set so we can't make more of it so if we have a delay or an issue whether that is out of our control that windows always closing and the sand sticking from that that sand time out all the time so once we've got it there we know we're putting the pressure to the teams because they're telling trackers they were just to have everything set up the car set up etc so the biggest biggest challenge by the far is time and the more distance the race is down the more back to backs weaker partner races that we have and that just increases so that that for sure is our biggest challenge regarding what people bring a move I mean we we in some cases sponsor driven you know we are moving things like water if there's a sponsor San pelagrino for Ferrari for etc um talons like their food so some home pasta sometimes um champagne etc etc so you know you've got to remember these people are on the road nine months of and those home comforts like English tea HP sauce all of those tiny things that can make you feel at home provide value and motivation for the team so we see a lot of home for home comforts as well I tell you a lot Paul if I was away for 24 races my particular brand of tea that I like that I won't say which one but it's based from the Yorkshire region that would have to come with me yeah I think I think that I can see that spot the British guys but they're they're the little things you don't you don't realize until you're you know you're out on the road for that length of time so absolutely um Paul it's such a fascinating world really do appreciate your time uh thank you so much for joining us on F1 explains really interesting insight no problem thank you for inviting me that is getting to the track but what happens once we're there time to welcome Georgia Tira Bassi she is DHL's formal one trackside coordinated so Georgia as you know we've just been speaking to your colleague Paul we know how the F1 circus gets to the circuit but how does DHL help trackside watch your roll I focus mainly on the air freight I am part of the office that is based in the paddock so I get to attend every single race both in Europe and international we do have a lot of import and export shipments that are coming in Europe as you can imagine it's mainly tracks and road freight but we take care of every single kind of of transport so see freight air freight road freight customs everything at trackside we do everything meaning that we need to be capable to sort any issue that may arise yeah you mentioned you guys do a little of everything what exactly are those things you know is it the freight for the teams with their cars is it perhaps you know pitsap equipment motorhomes so anything you see at the circuit apart from the circuit itself, we move it. Okay, it's not it does perfectly because we do move like the racecar spare parts, we move the forks and knife in Fadokla, we moved the the broadcast equipment, we moved carriers, we moved fuel. So anything that you see at the circuit, we move it. George, as we've just said, we were speaking to Paul, imagine a situation where like everything's arrived and your track side coordinators. So what are you then looking to do? What's everything for an F1 weekend has arrived and when would that typically be? And I'm getting a clue by when we're talking to you. So we are talking to Georgia, obviously podcasts are recorded in advance. So we're happy to say that as me and Katie sit here now, it's Thursday the 28th of September and the next Grand Prix weekend is Qatar, which is a week tomorrow, which Friday practice. So we're talking eight days from Friday practice. But Georgia, you're already on your way to Qatar, aren't you? So when do you get there and what are you doing once you get to the track? Because the fact that you're not sat at home now tells us that there's quite a lot to do. Yeah, so our operations starts normally the week before the race week. We start with our secret inbound on a Tuesday normally and then we keep going until after the week after the race week. So we stay in every country for the approximately 15 days every single day of the week. There is something coming. And as soon as we are done with the import, we start with the export. So the last day we finish like the import shipments, so that the actual freight are arriving to the F1 circuit is normally Saturday the day before the race. I mean, we don't have time to say we are done because as soon as we are, we start focusing on the export side of the operations. So it is an ongoing operation every single day. We have got something. So we never really stop. Yeah, it sounds that way. And as somebody who is on the road myself quite a bit and I'm trying to do the math here and I'm looking at the calendar as you're talking actually thinking to myself, we're getting to the weeds about your specific job. But I just wanted to clarify, you basically are going from one race location to the next location in your, you only go home to like whenever you need a closet change. Like I'm just trying to figure out Katie's basically asking the question I was thinking when on earth do you go home? Well, I'm going home for four days after Qatar. We get to see the whole operations and I don't I don't think anyone realizes how much time it takes to create an F1 race and an event like F1. What's the workfly? What's the first priority for the on track team at a race weekend? Okay, so in my job doing air freight every day we have got deliveries. So every day we need to check with the airport with the customs agent with everyone to ensure that we are at the circuit on time. Every single team will expect our freight by a certain time. So we always need to be on track. And every day we deliver something and up until Saturday. So every day we are planning on the next days and we just get that sorted. As we are planning on the deliveries we are also planning on the on the return shipment at the same time because after the race every team will send back something. Of course it depends on how many accidents they have as well. So we may have got last-minute shipments we need to arrange based on a crash or anything that has happened on the race weekend. But as a rule everything is pre-planned as much as possible. But there is no such job where you start with plan A and you end up with plan B, C, D, E, F until you have got one because it will always change every single day. So it's very challenging in a way but it keeps you alive as well. Yeah, it keeps you adrenaline pumping, the heart pumping, all the things. And Georgia how many people to DHL have at the track over the course of a race weekend? Because me and Katie have both been to with looking up to have been to several grandfrees and there seems to be plenty of people in the sort of recognizable red and yellow of DHL and there's the DHL looks like a real presence. How many people is all this taking? So in Europe we've got approximately 40 people with which include office people, our track drivers, our forklift driver, our ground staff. So in Europe we have a bigger number. In an international event we are approximately 20 again including everyone in the office and the and forklift drivers and operators. And the point really is to not see your guys as workflow, right? Like as a fan or as someone attending the event weekends or watching from home we want to know the DHL and your team exists but we don't necessarily see you guys working and that is a that probably is a goal. Is that a good way to summarize that? I always get asked what do I do? Because no one really can understand what is logistics in F1. What do you do at the circuit? I don't think anyone realize what's behind the scene, what happens, how a circuit is built, how the freight gets there, how hard it is, how everything is urgent because of course every single part, every single box in Formula One is urgent. It must be there, it has to be there because it could affect the race, the TV broadcast, going live. So every single shipment in our job matters, there is no room for delay, there is no room for mistakes because it I mean everything is extremely important. If you don't hear about us, then it means we have a good job, everything is there, nothing is missing, the race can happen, so you know where it's good. The unsung heroes of Formula One and and George, there was something that you said earlier that interested me because obviously so much of this will be planned, right? You know that F1 teams are going to need their motorhomes, so you arrange that and then it gets delivered and then the teams put it up. You know they're going to need the catering units, you know they're going to need the tires, their parts but let's look at a situation for example, like Logan Sargent in the Japanese Grand Prix qualifying. Logan has a big crash. A Radeez Logan Sargent who has found the barriers, the American driver has a couple of wheels, not pointing in the right direction, the red flag is out. He's out of the qualifying session and the team needed to repair the car to such an extent that Logan actually got a 10 second penalty for the race in Japan because Formula One teams aren't allowed a spare car anymore, but like they used to be in the 90s and 2000s because of cost saving. Now that was in Japan, Williams are based in the UK. Is that the sort of thing DHL would have had to help with or would Williams already have all the spare parts that could possibly need with them, or is someone from Williams getting on the phone once Logan crashes going, guys we're going to need this, this and this from our factory back in the UK? Well that is part of my job. It may seem weird but like keeping an eye on the TV and watching the race is my job. I need to see what happens. I need to see if there is any crashes because the moment a team crashes, they phone me and ask me to send something back. So that's fascinating. I would have never known that. I mean we didn't have fun. I was from that. I get a call and they ask me can we send this back and I have to arrange it. If I have paid attention to what has happened, I can start gladdening already on what I need and we send it back as urgent as possible. You and your team really bring to light what these shows are and again it's one of those things where if you weren't doing the job right, right, we would all notice on the outside but because we don't notice the day to day and what you guys are doing, that's the difference making. Georgia, before we let you go, I think often when we're in our work lives, there's something that we wish people knew about our job. For example, I know that Katie wishes that the listeners this podcast knew just how difficult I am to work with because I'm a nightmare and Katie wishes people knew that. But miserable. Yes, just miserable. Terrible man. Terrible. But with your job, Georgia, what do you wish that F1 fans knew about your job? Because we've already established the DHL and the sun heroes of Formula One. In a way, I have to say sometimes I wish they knew more about it because especially if you are a woman working in logistics in Formula One, it is difficult to be taken seriously as well. They don't really realize what we do. They just think that maybe I am the face of it. I just the image of the company, but I'm not. I actually am actually a coordinator. I get every single shipment at the truck and back to the F1 factories. So there is a full job behind it that no one really is aware of. I mean, we have to make sure it gets here on time regardless of what has happened. That side of the job that makes it different because there is no room for delays, no room for mistakes. We have to find a way to make it happen. So I would define my hub especially as in I am an expert in finding solution to problems. Because that's what my daily job is. I get given an issue and I have to solve it. My challenge is finding the best solution to the issue. I love that. Love it. Georgia brilliant insight and hopefully people will know that little bit more at the end of this podcast. Thanks so much for joining us on F1 Explains Georgia. Thank you so much for the opportunity. So that is getting to the track. We also know what DHL does at the track, but DHL can't do everything. I've long said that. So if you've ever seen F1 on the TV, you'll have seen the guys and girls wearing team branded high viz jackets, setting up and packing up particularly if you hang around to watch the post ratio on something like F1 TV. And that is where our race teams come in. So of course, Christian, I have someone from one of those teams ready to talk to us. Joseph Fandall is Alfa Romeo's head of race part logistics. Hey, Joseph, welcome to F1 Explains. Happy to be here with you guys. Thank you for the invitation. You're a pleasure. And Joseph just explained for us. What is a summary of your job? Well, as I'm with my job, and it's hard to describe basically we try to ship all the race part or the parts for the cars, inclusively the cars and all the equipment around the world. It's more than 20 races and there is loads of equipment involved. Seat rate, air freight, and it's constantly moving and it never really stops. It sounds like Formula One and it's finest that it just never really stops. Even though there's no off season, you guys are always doing something in the mix of it all. Anlister, shut down. Then we're not about to do that. That's it. Extremely well snuck in there, Joseph, just in case the FIA listening, unless of course for the shutdown, intense FIA gods. Yes. Very well said. And of course, you know, one of the important things we've talked about on this show is the fact that so many of the logistics happen for all of us fans and consumers of the content. We show up on race day to watch a great, great race and qualifying and practice. And yet at the same time, there is so much that goes into and out of these event weekends. If you could kind of big picture the summary for an event weekend for you, what is that like? We can't actually start like minimum 10 days before the actual Friday start. Trucks like motorhomes that have to leave from the home pace towards the race track that they usually arrive there week before the actual race happens or the cars are running. And then obviously from a Saturday, it starts, character starts, set up starts as well as the motorhomes are getting build up. And then we take what takes us about five days to have everything build up and ready to show for the first day when everybody appears at the race track and before obviously the show starts on Friday. Joseph, we've heard from Paul and Georgia from DHL and they've basically explained how they get freight and all the stuff to the race track. I'm getting at some point DHL and it over to you guys and what's the first thing you do when you receive all this stuff and you stood there at the track as you say, sort of anywhere from a week to 10 days before the Grand Prix. And it's like, right, here we go then. What happens then? Well first to say it's a big difference between Europeans and overseas. Overseas, everything is not everything but most of the stuff is handled by Tia Trail and F1 Cargo. While at Europeans we are sober or al-Framé of one team. We try to be more or less independent so we transport at the Europeans everything ourselves and the total of 15 trucks. Race 8 for the carriage and 7 solely for the motor. Those trucks basically go from race to race and it's more or less organized only from our side. Wow, that's an undertaking. But once arrived obviously and there is loads of people just waiting to unpack and unload everything. Again, there is the setup trucks carrying all the equipment which at the Europeans it's roughly two trucks and then we build the carriage from scratch line. There is nothing there. When we arrive there it's an empty garage. It's few cabling is already done provided by F1 Broadcast Centre and then we just start from scratch. Joseph, so obviously the very first thing is the garage which as you say is a shell and that's everything isn't it from places for tools from the team branding and everything like that. What point does building up the car come into it from a team's perspective? I mean this varies again as well from race to race but usually at Europeans we try to prepare it back in the factory on the Monday before the race starts and then we ship the cars more or less build up to the track on the Tuesday. So they arrive there on Wednesday morning together with the mechanics and then the fine tuning and from our engines applied about to arrive which has to be fitted there. They're really getting prepared on Wednesdays always. This is the same for Europeans and overseas. So how does that work exactly again from a big picture standpoint of a race track that's a bit further away with the back-to-back weekend car is then transported from one race weekend or one race location to the next location or does it happen to go home in the process of then coming back over to another race location to be built. Usually it doesn't go back to the factory overseas. Okay. Definitely not at Europeans only when there is a single race between the back-to-back for example Austria to Silverstone there is not really a chance to travel via Switzerland. Is that extra pressure on the team? It puts a lot of extra pressure on the people because everything and in planning and as well the mechanics they're under pressure to have everything ready for two races already because everything else a little bit delayed and which holds up the whole operation then. And we heard from Paul a little bit earlier in the podcast of course who was saying that for some of the flyaway races as they're known then the cars are then dismantled and as you say for some of the closer to Europe ones they are chipped out of sort of almost whole. Joseph your first appearance on this podcast but far from Katie's and Katie will know that I often find myself wanting to visit the places that are listed as a firm. We get a lot of them are less descending questions to this podcast ball. I've either of you ever been to Ocean City in Maryland. No Katie of you. Interestingly enough my husband I had there was a conversation about an interview there in Ocean City, Maryland. I have never been but have in fact out of all places that is a place that my next life could be in as Ocean City, Maryland. There you go Katie might be going. The reason I ask is because it sounds like I want to live in Ocean City. I mean what a place to say I live in Ocean City. It sounds great doesn't it? And I tell you who also lives there is Todd from Ocean City in Maryland and Todd sent us a question. He says I'm amazed at the amount of personnel equipment technology, extra parts, etc. That teams require on race weekend. So what exactly do they bring? How many cars on what extra parts Joseph? Basically we have three cars or three chassis set a track at every race and roughly parts to build up five. So we have got minimum two spare parts of each. Just in case. So you're building in some crashes that Joseph is effectively what you're saying. Not really crashes but sometimes we need to change from weekend to weekend and quantity of five parts. The race weekend you're pretty safe. I may be asking a ridiculous question but I'm doing it on behalf of Todd here Joseph. How many parts? Roughly. How much stuff are we talking? Hmm this is a good question but it's Todd's not mine all credit to Todd. From all of one cars building every single screw and everything about and I would only can guess I would say it's about 30,000 parts something like that. That is a wild. Talking in terms of tons it's about 30 tons of air freight we're shipping with the plane and equipment wise we've got another 25 tons of equipment we are shipping to every single event. Are we talking 30,000 parts per car? Yeah so it's not only the big focus like engine covers and this but it's it yeah I would tell the total around 30,000 parts per car. I loved how like mild faith Joseph was in answering your question. It was just like yes. Your face red. Yeah obviously. Is there one person in particular who is responsible for like counting all of the screws? Like I hope not. You know what I mean? Big picture like there is someone who is accountable for the equipment to go from wherever to wherever and is there someone who is the counter? Is there a head of screws Joseph? There must be a head of screws as well. No we try to split it up a little bit so there is many people responsible for various things. There is one department responsible for uprights another one for suspension legs and they're trying to make sure that all the correct and the correct quantities appearing at the race track as well. In one of the things that we've talked about in this is a better understanding when the equipment shows up at the track all of this 30,000 parts right? How many people really are responsible for making sure they go from point in to point B? Basically it's everybody's responsible because I'm a mechanic is not only a mechanic who's that can up as well, unloading everything so it's about 60 people involved. Setting it up is like six people, then there is about 15 mechanics built in the cars, that can up everybody's responsible that everything goes into correct plays again. Joseph, I'm not sure if this is your first podcast appearance, but let me tell you, you're doing an excellent job because as well as answering Todd from Ocean City's question, Todd let us know if you're happy with the answer and also let us know if Ocean City's as nice as it sounds, but also in that answer, we also answered Chris Closer's question who asked her F1 cars shipped in sections with the shifters and tire cars. We now know that and as we're in India, asked how many spare parts would a team carry? So without even realizing it, Joseph, you've managed to answer those questions and Georgia from DHL told us a little earlier that when a team leaves to organise delivery of extra parts, for example, for an unprecedented crash, they phoned DHL straight away and said, right, we're going to need to bring this over from the factory. How does that work from your perspective because that particularly interested me? Yes, that's what we do more or less on a daily basis or on a weekly basis, we are always in touch with DHL because like the late shipments, they are all organised via DHL and for instance like Susuka, we make a request to DHL, tell them we need five boxes with spare parts to be shipped from Switzerland to Susuka and then back from Japan to Switzerland again as well. Georgia and DHL, they're doing a great job in making it always possible that it's happening somehow in a very short time. I don't know if ever somebody tried to send something to Japan but usually it takes three weeks. Switzerland to Japan or the other around and we manage to do it in like a med of four days including all the custom formalities and with the help of DHL it's getting delivered straight to the garage or in front of the garage so that the person allowed there only, only, is it, he's the only need to, and loaded and put it to the car. I tell you what I notice about you Formula One people, Joseph and I don't know whether it's the same for you but none of you seem to relax very much. The race weekend finishes and if it was me before I started packing up at the very least have a coffee and something to eat but it always strikes me that the minute a race finishes or sometimes when the race hasn't even finished yet you see people starting to pack up but it always makes me quite sad because I'm inevitably not ready to go home yeah I'm like I'm enjoying myself don't pack up yet still 10 laps to go. How long is it from end of race to tail lights leaving the track? Our aim or our usual goal is in roughly six six and a half hours till everything is breaked up. You guys get food right? Our catering is very good and there are plain ways. I was applying a really good quality food all over the globe. Okay good. Is it challenging as well to find that places where it's not always that easy? I'll tell you incentivizing whatever it can be for those six six and a half hours to get some tail lights going for you guys as crew to get back on the road that's very that's a solid way to do so. Never say we don't dig into the important topics on this podcast. We really do. There is hot deadlines as well and I think it usually is about nine hours after the track at flag. The air rate at the oversee races has to be backed up. Sustonishing what do you think about it? You're really is. We do start backing up stuff already on Saturday sometimes or during the race it's more or less normal where we start to t-rick some bits and pops of our equipment because otherwise it would be not always that easy possible to meet those deadlines. Just so I'm getting this right as little as nine hours after the checkered flags waved. Formula ones in the air. Yeah. I mean it's not especially in the air but everything has to be sealed and backed away in the mega cases in the ULDs and then obviously custom comes and they are taking it away to the either next airport or at least it should be ready to be moved away to the next destination again. It is really wild and and for those who maybe haven't attended a grand pre-year been around it is just the meticulousness of the setup but also just like how vast and how much there really is and all the moving parts it's really impressive. I think from the logistical standpoint to just really dive into and better understand how this all comes to be because we like I said the beginning we show up for race day we're like let's party let's have a good time and so much has happened to get us to this point. Speaking of that you know you had mentioned offline that you also at one point in your deputy head of race part logistics job that you are now at. You in that process drove the truck to and from different races and whatnot and when I heard that I thought oh my gosh that there's precious cargo here like precious cargo. Is there a little lecture intensity on that drive than the typical drive on the motorway to pick up your groceries? I would think so I'm like sweating for you thinking about that one. Let's say I was driving the truck with the cars and I really was a little bit not very relaxed about it but it's a good feeling having the nicest trucks on the road but the load that's in there and it's what like do or at the time 300 people were working for and it's all in this truck kind of raised cars and all them most valuable equipment that we had man. Yeah but it's it is a good thing to drive but then it's not always so relaxed. I'd find it terrifying I mean I mentioned it already on this podcast but I've recently moved and this latest move Katie I drove the van. I had a van got a friend of mine to help me stick all the stuff in the van. I found that largely terrifying because it's like all my things. It's been everything I own let alone Valtteri Bottas as formula one car could you maybe terrifying wouldn't it again another thing we mentioned earlier is the motor homes that F1 takes all across the world it's just fascinating one of the drivers I spoke to it said I was in this room in Austria last week now I'm in the same room in another country it the motor the motor homes have to be unpacked built and packed up to the next race now Joseph aware this is not your job but you must have seen it and understand how it happens the motor homes look like permanent structures when you see them on the tally but they're not how do they work and move and travel. Basically I'm motor home for some of them the name is totally correct because they're trust trucks pop up trucks that's not as fancy as a motor home that doesn't sound as fancy yeah but basically our motor home is seven trucks and then there is the two office trucks at each side the middle one is as well a fold up with an upper floor and the lower floor the roof as well spreads out over the two office trucks and the kitchen trailer at the back so basically hours is more or less rolling all the way long but then there is other teams they're using a lot of more trucks up to 30 if I'm not completely wrong the case of other teams and obviously red ball caterers like two teams and they've got about 60 trucks and it's just bots it's like containers and they lift on top of each other and it's built like yeah Lego I would say it's like a big Lego bot unlike Duplo with the big bots on top of each other and it's built in the meta of two days usually if it has to go I built this chair I'm sat on Joseph which I know what you're thinking is incredibly impressive so thank you but when I first there's also a story I think behind that chair is there is another chair along the streets and well but that will have another podcast another podcast you're right Katie but the shop I bought the chair from forgot the instructions so I was faced with a massive box and a loaded different screws and this it took them two weeks to send me the instructions because frankly I'm hopeless at this sort of thing Joseph absolutely hopeless but until I had the instructions I was non the wiser are your team the same does the motorhome come with like IKEA furniture bits of paper that they go right we have to do this all do they just know basically they just know and this crew does it for years and I think it's almost 17 years now it's more or less or the yeah the key people they're more or less the same and they're there from the very beginning and there is like a couple of guys that really do know what's on my brain just doesn't work like that mine doesn't either I think it was a lot different in the early days of this motorhome where it really was difficult but now well to be fair you also get some good experience with all the race weekends that we do have on the formula one calendar that did help answer Danny from Seattle's question which was we here she wanted to know if there was someone at the team who's responsible for all those things from f1 getting to and from the race so thank you for helping answer that question a question I had was when when we talk about these new track layout and new track locations such as Miami over the course of last couple of years do you at the team and you and your teams kind of look at that and say oh gosh how we're going to fit everything everything in, is it kind of like rolling the dice and just showing up and hoping for the best like in Vegas and just saying, okay, we'll see what's going to happen. Are you guys get a lot of information prior? Do you map it out and kind of sketch it out really to know where your belongings are going to be? Yeah, I mean, basically we do get a plan or like our characters, which usually is like for three to four characters. And then we do receive this information, not really well ahead, but early enough so that we can sketch it out where what goes because we need to hand in a garage plan as well, three weeks prior to the race so that all the cable can be laid, bits to position can be marked up. We do appreciate what you guys do and it's really interesting to learn just a little bit more. So thank you for your time here on F1 explains. Such a pleasant short to you, Joseph really learns a lot. Thank you. Thank you very much as well. So interesting to talk to Joseph. Katie, there was so much I didn't know this week. I loved that. It was really fascinating. I think this is one of those episodes that again, we show up at the racetrack, the TVs go on, the lights go on and everyone is like, Oh, here's a race, here's qualifying, here's practice like we've mentioned, but really there is so much that goes into these race weekends and I think that's the biggest takeaway for me is though we are kind of a part of that Christian, I forget that the little details are such big details in the grand scheme of a whole race weekend. Yes, fascinating, isn't it? I really have learnt so much. DHL and those guys and girls from the teams who put everything up and take it all down again, the unsung heroes of the F1 weekend. That's it for now, but don't forget f1.com for all the latest news from the paddock, F1TV for all of the on track action and our other two podcasts, F1 Beyond the Grid and F1 Nation. Speaking of F1 Beyond the Grid, Tom Clarkson has probably got one of his best guests of all time. And the God of F1 car design Adrian Newey, go and have a listen to that, it's absolutely fascinating. And send us your questions, why at f1.com is the email address? And that is it for this week's F1.com, for me and Katie, bye for now, we'll be back next week.