The race against the clock for Bahrain - Nielsen

The ING Renault F1 Team team manager, Steve Nielsen, explains how the equipment will be sent to Bahrain in time for next week’s race. Yesterday, after the Malaysian Grand Prix, the team had to gear up to move to Bahrain.

“As soon as the flag fell we began to pack up. First of all, we stripped down the spare in the garage completely. Then as soon as the race cars left the parc fermé we stripped them down too after checking their set-ups, downloaded their data and started the engines. The race finished just before 17h00 and the first cases will leave for the airport at 20h30. The cargo plane will take off during the night and the freight will be in Bahrain tomorrow.”

“Yes, of course. For example we put new suspension on the cars, while the ones used this weekend will be sent to Enstone tomorrow morning to be revised. Then they’ll be sent to the circuit as spare parts. It’s the same thing for the gearboxes: the ones we changed on Saturday evening will go to the factory, and we’ll install two new ones in the chassis. Two more will be sent directly to Bahrain from Enstone.”

“We leave tomorrow on a direct flight for all the F1 teams, as there isn’t a direct one to Bahrain. On Tuesday we’ll have to begin putting up the garage, and then start unpacking the cars the next day.”