We could call it “the race behind the race” and it is the logistics effort to transport parts, catering and garage equipment seamlessly. Now add a lot of uncertainty to the standard challenge. We know about the eight upcoming races (starting in Austria and finishing in Monza with the Italian GP on September 6th), but we do not know what’s going to be next. The fact that we ignore if and where we are going to race next makes it hard to organise sea freights and the whole logistics around it.
The races we are going to will put a lot of stress on the drivers and on the whole team. Imagine that we have eight races scheduled over 10 weeks. Getting the team to properly rest is the priority. You are working on a high-energy level and still have to take care of the team and organise recreational events for them. This will be even more challenging now that strict regulations require us to keep distance and move in a so-called bubble.
The biggest challenge nowadays, is staying healthy. We are committed to stick to the “family cluster” as we call it and not meet anybody outside of it. The challenge would be for the team to spend time together for three weeks continuously. People may tend to sneak out because of boredom but it is very important to remind them that it is for their safety that they should stick to the rules, and with no exceptions.
To commit to 8 races in 10 weeks is something we have never done before. Nowadays we have no people working across teams and we are spending time either at the circuit or at the hotel. There, we have separate rooms; we have our meals in a dedicated space and we try to avoid any contact with the outside. We are not allowed to bring our hospitality and therefore have our catering organised by F1. The reason is that we are trying to keep the number of attendees as low as possible and if we had to bring our own catering the number of trucks would exceed 220.
In the paddock, every team is separated from each other, there are no VIPs, no guests, and 80 people per team are allowed. This set of rules will be in place until Monza, but things can change at any point in time, although we do not expect things to change before September.
5 - Are there any bright sides to this unprecedented situation?
We have to thank some of our colleagues in the industry who have talked to the authorities and managed to keep the same regulations for next year as well. We have managed strong resilience by going from zero to 100% again in a very short time. This has been possible also thanks to the communications within the company. During the entire lockdown period, in fact, we have kept regular communications amongst team members. We have even entertained ourselves with challenges to do sports and keep healthy while focussing on well being and positive thinking.
* Beat Zehnder has been with the Sauber family since 1988. He joined as a mechanic when the team used to partner with Mercedes Benz, moving from the second mechanic to the first within a year. Beat has been Alfa Romeo Racing Orlen’s Sporting Director since 1994 and now a familiar face in F1 circles.
