Q+A with Spyker's Team Manager Andy Stevenson

Britain has long been regarded as the home of Grand Prix racing, and no fewer than seven of the 11 current teams are based in the country. But only Spyker can truly claim that the British GP is a home race, since it is based directly opposite the main gate of the circuit.

The factory’s location is a legacy of previous owner Eddie Jordan’s links to the area. He was first based at Silverstone in his Formula Ford and F3 days, and when he moved into F1 in 1991, it was only logical that he remained in the place he knew best. It made perfect sense because most of his employees were based locally, and were moving up with him.

It’s a big weekend for the team because it allows factory-based employees who would not otherwise get to see the cars in action have a closer look, although juggling around the passes and giving everyone a chance is not easy.

"Obviously it’s our home Grand Prix," says team manager Andy Stevenson. "And we’ve got around 230 staff who would like to attend! We try and help and out where we can, but it’s very difficult. One thing I hate doing is saying to anybody from any of the departments that we can’t help them, because they all deserve to come to the circuit, because of all the hard work they put into it. It’s quite surprising how many people never actually see one of our cars on the circuit."

The biggest perk for the working race team members is that most have the chance to sleep in their own beds rather than in a hotel. In some ways it’s better if everyone sticks to the normal routine and treats it like a normal weekend, but the boost in morale has its advantages, bearing in mind the amount of time people spend away from their families over the course of a season. Everybody parks at the factory and then crosses over to the track by minibus.

However, there are some folk who can manage a commute of an hour or more in a normal week, but for whom it doesn’t make sense on Grand Prix weekend, and therefore stay in hotels, usually in Towcester or Buckingham.

"It’s a more comfortable weekend for everybody," says Andy. "And the way the schedule runs everybody can leave reasonably early. Also because of the improved infrastructure you don’t have to get up at 3am to get to Silverstone for 7am!"

It’s not just on the personnel side that things are more comfortable, because it’s obviously a lot easier to send the fleet of transporters across the road to Silverstone than to Barcelona, Monaco or the Hungaroring.

However, the motorhome and garage set-up trucks still have to arrive in the paddock early in the week, because everything has to be readied on a normal schedule. Because they’re not chasing off to the continent, the actual race cars can leave the factory three or more days later than they would for a normal European race.

"We’ll still take the car across on Wednesday night," says Andy. "Because of the way the regulations are written, they have to be available for scrutineering Thursday morning."

The extra preparation time is welcome, but the danger is that work expands to fill up any spare time. However, Spyker tries not to take too much advantage of the fact that the factory is a stone’s throw away.

"We’ve learned from the past, and we do make a big effort to say that when we go across the road, it’s as if we’re in Europe. We have meetings in the factory and we put that point across. So we take everything with us!"