11.04.07

BAHRAIN, HERE WE COME!

The last few weeks have been very busy for all eleven Formula 1 teams, but it's true to say our own Scuderia Toro Rosso crew have had more than their fair share of hard work and long hours, mainly because the STR2 was ready rather late, with the second car arriving in Melbourne having only just had a quick shakedown at the Mugello circuit in Italy.

Our Logistics Coordinator, Daniele Tartoni spoke to us about the long hours and hard slog that the team has been through since heading out to Melbourne. "It was not just the cars that involved us in a lot of work. We also had to deal with building up the completely new garage kit for the first time. It took us almost three days going on to ten and eleven o'clock at night on the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday before the Australian GP, when it normally only takes us a day. This delayed work on the cars because the working areas were not ready. We started work on the cars on Wednesday in Melbourne, with most days going on well into the early hours of the following day. The Friday was our longest day with the boys staying in the garage until four in the morning. Saturday was a bit more relaxed as the cars have to go to parc ferme after qualifying so we have no option but to stop work. That gave us a little bit of a break, even if we kept busy preparing spares and doing other jobs.

"After the race in Melbourne, we did not finish packing up and pulling down the garage equipment until 10.30 at night on the Monday, again because the material was all new to us. At least Tonio and Scott brought the cars home in one piece, because we were quite scared about what we would do if there had been any accident damage to deal with. Then we had to get everything sent to Malaysia for the test session but we had three days off in Melbourne first and then we had to start setting up the garage again, which was easier than in Melbourne because the Sepang garage is much bigger. In terms of aesthetics and set-up, the key things that are different is that we have two giant tv screens in the garage and a system of lights on either side of the garage which react to sound so there are microphones inside the frame and when the engines fire up the lights match the sound. It's like a disco!

Our third car arrived on Tuesday in Malaysia direct from Italy, almost finished but not quite and so we had some more late nights to finish it. The previous week's test at the Malaysian track was also extended from three to four days so we only had two days off for the boys on Saturday and Sunday. It was a tough week, finishing testing at five and then working night shifts to prepare the cars for the next day.

And now, after the Malaysian race a crew of about 20 of us pulls everything down and pack everything by ten on Sunday night so that it can go to Bahrain. The team flies tomorrow and the kit will be ready to work on by Tuesday morning so we have just enough time off to have dinner on Monday night! Then we start building up the garage again. It should be hot in Bahrain but at least we won't have to deal with the tiring humidity of Malaysia.