The Complex Web of Formula 1 Circus — 21 Races across 5 Continents

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Formula One Forever

14 min readDec 30, 2020

Behind the scenes of how Formula 1 teams make every race happen.

The Formula 1 circus in any given year travels to almost 21 countries across 5 continents in a span of 9 months. It is one sport that has the biggest and the best logistical planning and execution, as compared to any other global sport. No other sport comes close to the nature of meticulous planning and pin-perfect execution that takes place to put on a dazzling show for its fans.

But what all racing fans see is only the cars and drivers battling on the tracks across the world. Although that’s the main spectacle, the collective logistics that go into making each race happen, dwarf the efforts of the competitions themselves.

The logistics of moving the F1 circus between destinations is similar to a military operation.

The drivers, team personnel, media teams, and equipment must converge every alternate weekend, by land, air, and sea thousands of miles away at precisely the right time to make each race possible.

Every team has roughly 100 personnel flying and approx 50–60 tons of cargo to move for every race. And this army of people is on the road for as many as 200 days a year.

Each Formula 1 team travels nearly 160,000 km (include cargo & people) in those 9 months, which equals traveling around the globe four times..!

Warning — Now don’t go about fretting and complaining about the impact on global pollution, climate change, etc. If you are one of those green earth environmentalists, then I would suggest you don’t read this article further, cause you are not going to like what’s coming next. But if you do, then don’t tell me, I didn’t warn you.

Let’s Talk Numbers First

Over one season, roughly 2000 tons of freight is transported across these 21 race locations.
Airfreight constitutes 600 tons, Sea freight approx. 1000 tons and balance 900 tons is moved through road transporters. This is all equivalent to moving 300 full-grown elephants every 9 months.
To haul 600 tons of air freight, you need six to seven Boeing 747 Jumbo cargo planes — about 100 tons per aircraft.
To haul 400 tons through the road, up to 300 trucks combined for all teams move from country to country (mostly for the European races). If you put them all together, they would make a convoy longer than 5 kms..!

Now is the time to whip out your calculator to calculate the environmental impact. And am not even talking about the amount of fuel that is used to race the F1 machines on all these 21 tracks, and the fuel consumed by the seven Boeing 747s to ferry the cargo across 21 race locations. Those numbers will most probably blow you off planet Earth for good. (Will be writing about that in another article, so watch the space).

Told you, it’s not for the faint-hearted environmentalist. So, if you have come this far and still interested to read further, kudos to you. And that also means you are not the Ninja Earth Warrior that you would like to think you are. (sorry to burst your bubble)

Now let’s motor on, and see how the hell Formula 1 teams move this 2000 tons across the globe for 21 sporting events spanning 5 continents.

Its All About Planning

A Formula 1 season usually gets over in early December. After a few weeks of break that the team personnel take to spend time with their families, they immediately start planning their logistics in early January. That’s when the official calendar for the season is released by the FIA. The first race is held usually 2nd or 3rd week of March.

DHL is the official logistics partner of Formula 1 and it is tasked with very stringent time pressures and deadlines, which they have to make it, no matter what. Literally, no matter what.

Before we dive into how the team goes about the complex planning of logistics, it’s important to understand the definition of “fly-away” and “home” races.

Traditionally, all the F1 races were held in Europe. These are called “home” races. However, over the years, the F1 circus started exploring other venues (outside Europe), 1. to increase the fan base, 2. for commercial reasons. These races are called “fly-away” races. These flyaway races are held in Australia, Malaysia, Japan, China, Bahrain, Abu Dhabi, Singapore, USA, Mexico, Canada, etc

So when we refer to the complexity of logistics for the Formula 1 teams, it’s mostly applicable to these fly-away races. Not to say that the logistics of home races are any easy. But the fly-away races have a combination of air, sea, and road, which makes the challenge of going to Mars, look like a walk in the park.

Critical & Non Critical Equipment

To start with, every team segregates the critical (chassis, engines, tires, wings, computers, IT equipment, etc) and non-critical items (garage & office equipment, catering material, PR & marketing material, etc).

It is important to divide the equipment into critical and non-critical, as it offers tremendous flexibility to the teams in how they plan their logistics. It also helps the teams to work within their limited budgets.

Some top-tier teams have large budgets and their planning may sometimes different as compared to the teams with lower budgets. For eg, the Mercedes Petronas AMG Formula 1 team uses its own logistics partner (DB Schenker) to ship its equipment for the home races within Europe.

Non-Critical Equipment

The non-critical items are packed in special custom containers and then shipped by boat. Why boat? Because it’s cheap, silly..! Every penny counts in Formula 1, though it may not seem so from the outside when you see the after-parties of the races, especially the glitzy parties of Monaco. Well, there also you see the boats — but the really expensive types.

So where were we? Yeah — the containers for the non-critical items. Teams usually take three 40 foot containers on average by boat. Since ocean shipping is slow and cheap, the teams will prepare 5 sets of 3 containers each and ship them out in advance. Some teams may prepare less number of containers, depending upon their budgetary spend for that year.

The shipment of non-critical items by sea freight is highly important for the fly-away races.

Fly-Away Races

In January, teams begin shipping the 5 sets of the Non-critical equipment for the first five fly-away races of the season (for eg, Australia, Bahrain, Vietnam, China, and Azerbaijan). After the race in Australia, they will pack that set again and send it out to, say Canada (it is the 6th or 7th race of the season). And they repeat the same procedure for the other 4 sets as well.

By doing this, the teams can rest assured that every fly-away race will have their set in time.

Back-to-back fly-away races such as Singapore and Russia can be the most challenging logistically, as DHL gets only three days to get all the equipment for all Formula 1 teams over 7,8000 km from Singapore to Sochi. That, coupled with a changing time zone, makes it an extremely tight schedule!

At other times, weather factors can lay to waste the best laid out plans and throw the entire logistical chain into chaos. The tight turnaround between the Mexican and US Grands Prix in 2018 was almost derailed by a hurricane that had made landfall in Florida.

The teams’ sea freight which was headed to Mexico was due to be delayed until the Thursday before the race — leaving too little time to set up the garages. DHL had to think quickly and find a solution. They took the identical kit which had been used by the teams at the US Grand Prix to Mexico and sent it by road, as is the norm for the European races, immediately after the Grand Prix, eliminating the need for sea freight.

Quick thinking was essential to ensure that Formula 1 circus always arrives not only on time, but before time.

Critical Equipment

The critical equipment is basically the car. Before transporting, the car is usually stripped down (not the full monty). Just the engine, gearbox, mirrors, suspension parts, the front, and rear wings are removed. Each of these parts is then packed in its own foam slotted box. Some teams go the extra mile and use the good ol’ bubble wrap as a precautionary measure. The chassis is packed in its own custom made covers.

Each team then packs the equipment in its own custom made cargo crates that are designed to optimally fill the space available in the aircraft’s cargo hold. Everything is customized.

All the teams use the cargo planes, chartered by Formula One Management (FOM), in partnership with DHL. Considering that all the teams are based in Europe, these planes fly out of Munich & London to wherever the race is being held.

Depending upon where the races are held (either home races of fly-away races), the transportation is accordingly planned. If the race location is within Europe, then the truckies get into action. And if the race location is outside Europe, then the Boeings take-off.

DHL Official Logistics Partner for Formula 1

At Home Races

When the Formula 1 teams are racing in Europe, they will only have one week between the races, however, this is also the easiest part of the whole season. But some home races have their own set of challenges.

The transport between races is done by long haul trucks. Transport by trucks is the most cost-effective way of transport, so the teams can bring much more equipment with them as compared to for the far-away races. This includes the Motorhomes, which are multi-storied building structures for the staff that travels with the teams during the European part of the season.

These motorhomes can be as big as office buildings that have conference rooms, a large kitchen, briefing rooms, and even include pools.

Redbull Formula 1 Team, rightly calls their motorhome- Energy Station

The cars are boxed up and transported with all their aerodynamic parts removed. The cars are then placed on an elevated platform inside the truck and cushioned in order to prevent any movement or damage. All the equipment required for the race weekend — cars, spare parts, and tools are loaded into the trucks.

Effectively, each Formula 1 team carries enough spare parts to rebuild their cars, 40 sets of tires, 2,500 liters of fuel, 200 liters of motor oil, and 90 liters of coolant. Tyres, fuel & other equipment are transported separately by local partners and technical contractors.

The logistical operation can reach stratospherical levels when there is a triple header (3 races on three consecutive weekends) in Europe. The teams sometimes have to cover a 1,600 km journey between the Red Bull Ring in Austria and Silverstone in the UK within 3 days, including set-up and breakdown time.

Each truck is manned by three drivers to ensure the cargo never stops moving. They don’t take any rest breaks and only stop for refueling.

Every second is crucial and losing too much time can have just as disastrous effect as losing time during the race itself. Truckers are the real heroes.

Every team also paints their trucks in their brand colors and sponsors’ liveries, which offers a massive opportunity for branding when the trucks travel thousands of miles within Europe to transport the cars, equipment, and tools to the race locations.

All the teams, except for Haas Racing have their home base located in Europe (additionally has a base in the United Kingdom), so all their races are fly-away races, except for the US Grand Prix (Ok, let’s add Canadian Grand Prix as well).

And Haas Racing is not a big-budget F1 team, so it has to operate with very limited budgets and still show up on time with all its equipment for all the fly-away races. Now, that’s an impressive Formula 1 team.

Showdown At The Race Track

The teams also pack priority cargo for each Grand Prix, which includes all the essentials to get the garages up and running, such as IT equipment, garage walls, etc. Each team gets 3 priority boxes from DHL. Those three boxes are sent by air to the race venue. All the other materials are transported the next Monday morning by Boeing 747’s.

These arrive at the next circuit first on Tuesday (race weekend begins on Friday and lasts until Sunday evening).

On Tuesday all the priority materials (equipment that the team will need to set-up up their garages and motorhomes)and sea containers are brought to the paddock by the Formula 1 logistics team and placed before the dedicated pit-boxes (just outside the allocated garage).

The Formula 1 regulation says that the teams aren’t allowed to touch their cargo until all boxes for all teams are placed on the dedicated locations. This to make sure that all teams have the same amount of time to start setting up their garages, motorhomes, and cars.

On Wednesday the paddock is closed again while all the other boxes arrive, including the cars themselves. At that moment the teams are again not allowed to touch anything until everything for all teams has arrived. On Wednesday evening all the teams have an operational garage and can start building the car.

By Wednesday afternoon, everything in the pit-lane and paddock is fully operational and ready for media day on Thursday.

Packing Starts Before The Lights Go Off

Finally, let’s look at how the cars get packed and shipped from the moment after the race. In order to meet stringent timeline pressures, the team starts packing the equipment on Sunday before the race itself.

As per F1 regulations and the complexity of repairing the cars during the race, some spare parts can’t be changed during the race weekend. These are mostly the gearbox or an engine, so these are packed up even before the race begins. So in about 3–5 hours after the race, the team is pretty far with packing all the other equipment and everything is normally gone from the race track.

The car is completely stripped down and each component is placed in its own foam slot, sometimes after being wrapped with bubble wrap as an extra precaution. If it is not a back-to-back race then the cars are flown back to the factory to be checked over and repainted.

The roads to and from the airports are also checked to ensure there are no obstacles to a smooth journey alongside any local customs quirks or any other issues that need to be ironed out.

When there are only three days between the conclusion of the race on Sunday and the whole circus starting up again the next Thursday, it requires meticulous planning and organization from everybody involved to make sure that everything arrives at the right place at the right time and is accessible in the right order to have the entire paddock ready for the next event.

This means there is no time to lose for the teams; when the drivers are celebrating a successful race by champagne showers, the rest of the team are dismantling the race car at maximum speed to prepare it for transportation.

Sometimes, customs checks are carried out at the circuits themselves rather than at the airports, in order to speed things up.

Then all the packed equipment is handed over to DHL, which has to get everything to the next city on time. Actually, it has to get there before time.

Final Thoughts

The nature of Formula One makes perfect planning impossible. As race day approaches, teams inevitably make changes to their cars or find themselves in need of a spare part left at their home base. Something always comes up at the last minute, and they have to be prepared as usual. Nothing is left to chance.

The moment a late order comes in from any of the F1 teams, DHL dispatches someone to fulfill it and get it on the next plane out. Even last-minute requests can be delivered to the track within 24 to 36 hours.

In F1, where everything is measured in thousandths of a second, so the teams are always looking for ways to save time.

They may have the best-looking racing machines, the best motorhomes to party, the best hotels to stay. But one thing that they don’t have in abundance is time. And that’s why planning is the most crucial element for F1 teams.

They plan, plan, and plan, and hence the execution is so flawless that there has never been even a single instance when the car has failed to reach the race track. Formula 1 teams along with DHL and all their transportation partners ensures that every single race is delivered to all their fans on time.

Come hail or storm, Formula 1 teams motor on.

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