A race against the clock

No sooner had the cars crossed the finishing line that the ING Renault Formula One Team’s mechanics began a race against the clock. On Monday, some of them will already be at Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium.

Steve Nielsen is the ING Renault F1 Team’s team manager. Among his jobs are the organisation of the team and the transport of all the equipment to the races. As soon as the Italian Grand Prix was over his men had to take up another challenge despite their tiredness, a logistical one this time. The cars have to be at Spa-Francorchamps tomorrow for next Sunday’s race.

“As soon as the race was over we began to dismantle the spare car,” explains Steve. “We have to wait for the race cars to come back as they’re kept in parc fermé for a little while after each grand prix; then we can begin to dismantle them too. Gearboxes and suspension will be sent to Enstone where they’ll be reconditioned and sent on to Spa. They should arrive on Thursday and they’ll be used as spare parts for the Belgian Grand Prix. The gearboxes and suspension that acted as spares for the Italian race will be fitted on the cars for the next one.

“This evening, the team’s transporters will set off for Spa and they should arrive tomorrow afternoon. A small team of mechanics will take a plane tomorrow, and they’ll begin to put up the garages in Belgium. The other mechanics will travel there by car starting tomorrow morning with a stopover in Chamonix, and they’ll arrive on Tuesday. As for the engineers, they’ll go back to Enstone, except for one. We always have an engineer with us when we’re assembling the cars. The others will arrive in Belgium on Thursday.

So yesterday, Renault has had not one, but two races!