Keep on trucking!

After working out of the freight equivalent of suitcases for the first three races, Imola sees a return to normality as all the teams bring their trucks and transporters into the paddock. The first European race of the year is always interesting, as it sees the debut of any new equipment the teams have invested in over the winter.

There's no question that MF1 Racing has made a big impression this week with its stunning line-up of three brand-new vehicles in the Imola paddock. Painted dark grey, they carry only subtle branding - in stark contrast to the huge photos of its drivers staring from the side of trucks of a certain German-Swiss team! In short, they look cool.

The new trucks are the result of a shuffle around within the team. Quite simply, the test team trucks inherited from Jordan had reached the end of their useful life - they had in fact started life at McLaren in the Senna/Prost era! So the team decided to pension them off and switch the former race trucks to test duty. Although they were only introduced in 2000, it was also felt that it was the right time to update the race team equipment.

The three new vehicles are of the 'pump-up' design first introduced to F1 by McLaren. When they're parked in the paddock the top section lifts up via a complex hydraulic system to create two levels. The top half becomes extra workshop or office space, and the team's engineers now have a much-improved working environment.

The trucks were built by Schuler, a famous German coachbuilder whose F1 client list also includes Toyota and BMW, and they are towed to the track by brand new MAN tractor units. Unfortunately, the tight squeeze in the Imola paddock means that MF1, like most of the teams, has had to leave the tractor units in a car park outside, so the full effect won't be seen until Nurburgring.

We asked team manager Andy Stevenson to explain how the three vehicles are used:

"The first one is the Technical Support Truck. Downstairs is all the IT back-up, all the servers, all the racks, all the radio base stations, all the repeaters, all the equalisers. Also downstairs is a workshop is dedicated to Toyota. We transport the engines in there, and if they have any jobs they need to do, it's their workshop. Upstairs is the engineer's office, with a table that seats 12, for the engineers and drivers to do their briefings and debriefs. The middle section is an office for the Toyota engineers, and then the end section is the management area. We have the capability to do video conferencing back to the factory. All the trucks are equipped with JVC plasma screens. We can see all the screens that we can see on the timing stand out on the pit wall. There's a very nice music system as well - which we typically don't use! (Wink, wink)

"The next one along is the Workshop Truck. Downstairs is used for storage of spares, and it's also the machining centre, where we have a lathe to do small modifications. Upstairs is the hydraulic and gearbox workshop. We have a tail lift at the bottom so that we can take gearboxes or any other heavy parts up to the top floor, so they can be worked on. The front part is used for an electronics workshop, so any bits that they need to work on can be taken in there to a clean environment.

"The third one we're calling the Support Truck. Downstairs carries the majority of the spares for all the cars, so we will have suspension, uprights, fuel cells, and so on. Upstairs is where we keep all the carbon spares, such as floors, noses, wings. At the front end is a small office which we're using for marketing at the moment, but it in the future it will be an 'overflow' office for when we bring extra guys from the factory."

The strange thing is that none of the three trucks actually carries the cars to the circuits! The pump-up design makes that impossible, so the cars travel separately in a fourth truck that unloads them in the pitlane and is then parked outside for the rest of the weekend.

Stevenson admits it was hard for the team to get used to the concept after years with a more standard arrangement, but he insists there are huge advantages to be gained from the new set-up. It always takes time to pack the main trucks and manoeuvre them out of the paddock after the race - huge traffic jams are created because everyone else is doing the same thing - so the cars actually get away quicker by going out of the front of the garages and straight to the motorway.

"Because of the design of the trucks, you can't actually transport cars in them. So we have a fourth one which is the actual transporter, which carries the three cars, the toolboxes, and basically the equipment which is used to maintain the cars. At first I wasn't sure if it was a good idea, but in fact it makes it very convenient for getting cars to the circuit late, and away from the circuit early.

"We bring the truck down the pitlane - or even on the track - after the race, and just roll everything in. For example, we're running the T-car at Silverstone next week, and we can get it out of here earlier than we otherwise would. The truck is very sparse inside, but it's absolutely perfect for the job."

That's not the end of the story, for there is also a fifth truck that carries stuff such as garage equipment, which is the first to arrive and the last to leave the track.

The new trucks are packed with high technology, and the guys are still getting used to them. But even the most simple of problems can cause a headache, as they found when trying out the systems back at Silverstone last week.

"It was basically something as simple as a drained battery! The batteries charge themselves, and there's a huge fuse system in the back of each truck. As they were driving it over from Germany, for whatever reason, a fuse flipped, and the battery wasn't being charged. It was parked outside the factory for two days, and when we went to pump it up, the battery was flat. Because there are so many safety systems on it we couldn't pump it up until the battery was charged!"

You can bet that won't happen again...