ORGANISATION at the Bahrain Grand Prix is “much better” than most circuits, with customs officials easing procedures of bringing in Formula One cargo, according to a top official.
From aircraft landing to the equipment and cargo going through customs and arriving at Bahrain International Circuit (BIC), DHL motorsport deputy managing director Pier Luigi Ferrari told the GDN that the operation was incredibly smooth.
He also revealed that almost two entire aircraft were needed to transport the television equipment alone.
“We find that Bahrain is incredibly well organised in terms of the circuit – much better than others,” he said.
“(The first race) in 2004 maybe it was a surprise, but now, after experience with many other countries and as Bahrain progressed, we have to say, it’s incredible.
“They facilitate our logistics and the infrastructure with the airport and port and the capability of customs to understand our requirements and necessity. Sometimes it’s not easy to explain to local authorities why we’re rushing and why we push to go fast and quick.”
Mr Ferrari said that while usually Formula One required six Boeing 747s to transport cargo, the Bahrain Grand Prix required 10.
“The total of the cargo material shipped by teams is 300 tonnes all together, which are three B747,” he added.
“Then you have the television equipment, which is between one to one and a half aircraft by itself. The broadcasting is a massive thing.
“Then you have other events and materials for the final aircraft.
“The full Formula One event is six aircraft, however, for Bahrain, we have more aircraft coming in, because you have the TCR International Series, the Porsche GT3 and Formula Two.
“So that’s why in Bahrain, there are 10 aircraft arriving, but that includes all the championships.”
Approximately 2,000 tyres are shipped into each country for every race, according to Mr Ferrari, because all conditions needed to be accounted for.
“The change of the tyres this year, though, created a bit of a mess for Pirelli in terms of being able to produce the tyres in time according to the specifications,” he explained.
“FIA specifications say that the team can choose what tyres they want a week before the race, and for industrial production, that’s complicated for them to be able to produce that fast and ship by ocean.
“Their target objective is to ship by ocean when possible because of the weight of the tyres, but to be honest over the last three races this season we’ve moved everything by air.
“There’s been one aircraft dedicated to Australia, China and Bahrain. The problem is at the moment, realistically, we don’t even have 10 days for the factory to produce them.
“We ship around 2,000 tyres per race because you have different types and we can’t forget to ship wet tyres even when there’s a small probability.”
Mr Ferrari added that this year’s in-season testing at the BIC, following the Bahrain GP, meant that for the shipping company the race felt back to back with the Russian Grand Prix.
“This year we have in-season testing here at BIC after the Bahrain Grand Prix, so we have to make sure all the materials are here for that, too,” he said.
“The only equipment that will come later is experimentations or particulars developed by each of the teams, and they’ll arrive on Monday.
“This race and the next one aren’t back-to-back because there’s 15 days between them, but it feels like back-to-back for us in shipping because of the in-season testing. It means we still only have three days to do the turnaround.”
This year’s Bahrain Grand Prix was the third of 20 rounds of the 2017 FIA Formula One World Championship.