Raring to Go in Bahrain

The talking stops in Bahrain this weekend as the 2006 F1 season finally gets underway. There’s plenty to catch the attention – new drivers, new or re-launched teams, new engines and a new qualifying system. MF1 Racing’s transition from its former identity as Jordan Grand Prix represents one of the biggest changes in the pitlane.

The familiar old yellow livery has gone, and in has come a dramatic new grey and red colour scheme that carries over from the cars to the whole team. The team has left no stone unturned in the quest to raise its game for this season, and one aspect was revealed this week as the crew prepared for the Bahrain race.

Apart from the cars themselves, the pit wall stand is one of the most public faces of any team, because it’s where the management and engineers are caught by the TV cameras during every race. But the stand is far more than just a row of stools. It’s the communications hub of the team, or, in effect, the motor racing equivalent of NASA’s Houston.

During races, it is home to eight people, namely: Managing Director Colin Kolles, Team Owner Alex Shnaider, Technical Director James Key, Head of Race and Test Engineering Dominic Harlow, Sporting Director Adrian Burgess, Team Manager Andy Stevenson, and, last but by no means least, the two race engineers – the men who talk directly to the drivers.

Over the winter, MF1 has constructed a brand new pit stand. It’s a beautiful piece of industrial engineering, built to do a very specific job. It has already received admiring glances from rival team members up and down the pitlane.

“Last summer we started to look at all the areas we wanted to change from Jordan to Midland,” says Adrian Burgess. “Obviously, we had to replace a lot of equipment because it was bright yellow, and a simple lick of paint was not what we wanted to do. The pit wall was one of those projects, so we took the opportunity to start from scratch.

“We’ve done it in-house, and we’re very happy with it. It’s provided an opportunity to showcase the products of partners such as JVC, and we’ve done it very cost effectively. I’ve had a chat with some of the other team managers and some of the figures they’re quoting for theirs are amazing. Ours was massively cheaper, so I’m quite happy about that! It’s fairly light, which also saves us money on the freight for flyaway races, so there are many aspects to it. It looks good, and it helps us to re-launch the image of the team.”

The layout incorporates the best technology available. There are eight large flat panel JVC screens, above a lower row of smaller JVC flat screens. Below the latter is an array of switches that looks like it might very well be part of a NASA command centre. These control the radio system.

“The larger screens are quad-split monitors, so we can see all four pages of FIA data at once, and the lower monitors can show either the FIA TV feed or PC data. We can look at the on-car data in real time, there’s simulation software, and car positioning software for the race.

“We’ve got a fairly sophisticated intercom system, which is a step forward from the one we had last year. It’s more secure and reliable. Now from the pit wall we can talk to a lot more people in the garage than before, and we can also talk to the factory during the race. While we could do that before, it’s much more efficient now.”

Everything on the public side of the garage is also new, such as the screens that form the walls and the workbenches. The next stage of the transformation will become apparent at the first European race of the year at Imola, when the new trucks and motorhome make their first appearance.

“We’re quite proud of them,” says Burgess. “They’ll give the people at the circuit a nicer environment for them to do their job. Again, we want to present a professional image, and it all adds up. We want to do things right.”