It looks easy, but it isnt. When you turn on your TV to watch a GP in Japan, everything is there, just as if it had been there for months; bikes, riders and teams. As if by magic, seven days later, everything is back in place, only thousands of kilometres away, in Malaysia, and later on in Australia, despite having already been in South Africa or Brazil.
The Circus moves very fast and often has to do jugglery to be always in time in order to stage 16 GPs, 6 of which are held outside Europe. We visited the backstage of a race to see by ourselves how they manage to move such an enormous amount of things and people so far away and so fast.
In order to do this, we chose a particular scenario, namely October 6th at the Motegi Circuit in Japan. After Toni Elias had crossed the finish line as the winner, his mechanics didnt have much time for celebrations. As soon as the race was over, they started to clear the pit garage, dismantling bikes, putting away tools and spares and organising equipment, advertising panels, tyres, fuel and everything necessary for a GP in huge boxes; a total of 4,900 Kg.
This task, sometimes frenetic, continues well into the night. There is not much time available. Early the next morning 25 trucks arrive at the circuit to collect the boxes of all teams and the organisation to take them by road to the Tokyo airport, 120 Km away from the circuit. There, specialised staff takes care of customs clearance and administrative formalities that sometimes are quite complex, since it is extremely valuable material, including some delicate elements such as fuel.
This procedure takes a total of 24 hours and on Monday afternoon 166 tons of material are embarked in two huge cargo Jumbos. Everything is stowed in the aircrafts holds, not only bikes, computers, tyres and spares, but also all the material used by Dorna Sports to organise each of the GPs, i.e. computers and timing equipment, cameras and TV equipment. Those 166 tons comprise 145 tons of the teams, 10 tons of tyres and 12 tons of material used by Dorna to stage the races.
After an 11-hour flight at night, the planes land on the Sepang airport in Kuala Lumpur. This time the unloading is extremely fast, because the circuit is located on the grounds of that huge airport. The rest of the times a road transport facility is needed to take everything to the corresponding circuit.
While the 166,000 Kg of high-tech material are flying on a cargo aircraft, 1400 persons are also moving on. Riders, mechanics, team managers, organisation staff and press do not have much more time left to jump from one continent to the other to prepare the next event. Usually it is not only a change of country but also a change of times, habits, weather, food and of course a change of language.
The whole material is set up once again, this time in Sepang. On Wednesday, early in the morning, it´s time for customs clearance. The boxes are already being expected by the mechanics who took the plane right after they finished packing. One day to rest and back to work. Now its time to open the boxes, set up the pit garages, connect the computers, get the tools ready and especially dismantle and check everything, even the smallest screw of the bikes used in Japan to get them ready and have them in perfect conditions for the next GP, this time the Malaysian GP.
These logistics activities are carried out sixteen times a year thanks to a long and conscientious groundwork such as hiring transport facilities, taking insurances, searching for hotels, restaurants, car and van rentals and making the corresponding reservations. The agreement with the airline is made together by Dorna and the Teams Association in order to get the best possible price, since the average air cargo price for 1 kg is of about 4.5 USD. The loading of the teams equipment is always made in Luxemburg and from there it is flown to the different GP venues in Asia, Africa, America or Oceania.
All of this to let the rider find his bike perfectly set-up on Friday morning. From that moment on it is his and the engineers responsibility, but the fact of finding everything in place is with no doubt a little miracle.
The figures:
- Races held in the 2002 World Championship: 16
- Races held outside Europe: 6
- Staff working at the GPs abroad: 1400 persons
- Transported material: 166 tons
- Cheapest cargo route: Johannesburg-Luxemburg: 3.50 $ per Kg
- Most expensive cargo route: Río de Janeiro-Tokyo: 5.80 $ per Kg
- Average cargo price per Kg: 4.5 $
