Race failure in 2022 conceivable?
Formula 1 fears serious delivery problems
4/7/2022, 7:34 p.m
On the way to the Australian Grand Prix, important cargo is threatened with a noticeable delay. The German logistics partner of Formula 1 intervened in good time. Despite this, there is apparently growing concern among the teams that disrupted transport processes will affect the tight schedule.
Supply difficulties ahead of the Australian Grand Prix nearly meant three Formula 1 teams were without essential equipment this weekend. This could only be prevented at the last minute thanks to the intervention of logistics partner DHL, as “Autosport” reports. Accordingly, Paul Fowler, the Vice President for Motorsport Logistics, traveled to Singapore to ensure that the cargo ship, which was significantly delayed, was loaded onto aircraft at short notice and thus arrived in Melbourne on time.
How big the impact on the race in Melbourne (Sunday, 7 a.m. / Sky and in the live ticker on ntv.de) would have been remains pure speculation. In Formula 1 itself, however, there has apparently long been concern that the global restrictions on supply chains and transport processes could lead to noticeable impairments. “At the moment, I don’t think anyone can give you a guarantee that anything will get to the right place at the right time,” says Haas team boss Günther Steiner, who is generally appreciated for his clear words.
“I think Formula 1 takes that [Problem; Anm.d.Red] serious, but it’s one of those things that you can’t really control,” continued the Austrian, whose racing team had been affected by a delay during testing in Bahrain before the start of the season. Haas was allowed to use the missed time on the track after consultation with in Formula 1, but of course this solution is impossible in qualifying or a race In the MotoGP motorcycle world championship, a whole day of training had to be canceled last weekend because transport planes arrived too late in Argentina.
Costs more than 20 times as much
The tight schedule of Formula 1 makes even minor delays, which are now also due to the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine in addition to the corona pandemic, problematic. Between March 20th and November 20th, 23 Grands Prix are planned worldwide within 246 days – on average every 10.7 days. This tight timing makes the premier class of motorsport vulnerable as soon as important team equipment or even the cars themselves are affected by a delay.
“It won’t get any easier,” says Steiner, referring to the current season and probably also referring to the massive increase in transport costs. The aforementioned Fowler reported “Autosport” this week of prices that are 20 times higher than before: Shipping a container, for example, previously cost “around 900 US dollars” and is now “almost 20,000 US dollars”. This is all the more problematic for the ten Formula 1 teams because the transport costs are included in the cost ceiling of 140 million US dollars that applies this year.
It is true that the racing teams have many parts in multiple versions, which are then used in a rotation process and are therefore sent in a more time-consuming but cheaper way. Nevertheless, given the limited budget, the additional expenses are noticeable. “Everyone faces the same problem,” says Steiner, and suggests talking about an upward adjustment. Which would certainly be much easier for Formula 1 than if, in the worst case, a complete race weekend were to be impaired due to delivery problems.
