According to the organisers’ official website, a last-minute scramble around the world has insured that all teams will have their equipment ready for this weekend’s Australian Grand Prix.
DHL, which is Formula 1’s official freight partner, had to step in to ensure that the equipment, which was in the middle of a 42-day sea freight journey down under, arrived in Australia in time for the third round of the 2022 F1 World Championship at Albert Park this weekend.
According to the report, a ship carrying the freight was delayed by nearly two weeks adding to that the fact that some of the F1 teams wanted to change their garage ‘kit’ since the end of last season like Aston Martin Racing which is running a different shade of green than it was last year, and then there was February and Ukraine.
Paul Fowler, DHL’s Vice President of Motorsport Logistics, had to fly from the company’s Luton, UK headquarters to Singapore to’rescue’ supplies for three Formula One teams that had been delayed in transit and were in danger of arriving too late in Melbourne.
Fowler had to oversee the evacuation of the freight, its repackaging, and loading into three DHL air freighters, two Boeing 777s, and a 767-300, to transport them to Melbourne once he arrived in the city-state.
The team equipment arrived on Monday at Albert Park, just in time for the race weekend. Aside from the difficulty of transporting the teams’ equipment around the world, freight costs have skyrocketed in the last two years.
“There is almost a bidding war now, rates from Europe to Asia to Europe that were pitching at about [US] $9000 a container is now about $20,000,” Fowler explained.
“What many people do not see is the work that goes into moving some of the team hardware, apart from the cars, engines and spares, around the world by sea” he added.
“All teams have five sets of kit, and that is stretching to six, because of the extra races.”
“So the stuff you see in the garages, on the walls, the pitlane gantries, the perches that the team personnel sit on, is all sea freighted in.”
Last year, F1 and DHL agreed a multi-year renewal of their long-standing agreement, which would see the logistics company continue to offer services to the global motorsport series.
The end-of-season Fastest F1 Pit Stop and Fastest Lap trophies will bear the name of the Deutsche Post-owned enterprise, as well as increased involvement in the F1 Esports Series and a presence on the series’ digital channels.
