Flights Home Logistics - Impact to Barca Prep

With the race over and from what Jake was saying they have been told they will be in China for another week cause of this Ash Cloud.

This could means the teams have 2 instead of 3 weeks to prepare @ home for the Barca race.

Has the Shangai curcuit got anything planned for the following week?

So to at least allow the F1 teams to stay in the Pits and at do some development work why they are on the tarmac....or will they be turfed out?

Tried a few Chinese web page for the curcuit's itinerary but I'm no good at their language...

Andy

They can't do much development at Shanghai. They won't have anything/much in the way of facilities and it's not like they can test or anything. Presumably most of the design crews remain at home rather than travelling anyway, so I doubt there'll be much impact. They'll still have plenty of time to finish designs and manufacture parts.

They're just going to have to suck it up and deal with it.

MotoGP have postponed the Motegi race (scheduled for next week) until October.

Yeah so probably just over 'the wire' development then.....

Andy

I have to say, your query doesn't really make any sense in modern F1. The cars/garage equipment and general containers will be packed up and sent to the airport as freight as normal. This will then be impounded prior to the six 747 freight planes to be cleared for loading which all the F1 teams use. Once the airspace problem has been lifted the planes will be loaded and sent back to the UK.

There is no in-season testing anymore so having the cars at the garage is pointless.

General car developments don't really require the actual chassis, so the majority of the development work can be simulated, tested and the parts ready for when the chassis is available. On car testing generally happen in the free practice sessions anyway.

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everything will be going on as planned back at base for all the teams. this delay will only be for the race team/personnel. the flights should clear up by the end of this coming week so by next weekend everyone should be where they need to be on the planet.

as soon as the delays have cleared up the teams can start to transport freight to Barcelona.

they're lucky it's 3 weeks till the next race weekend rather than a back-to-back.

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RIP Jules, never to be forgotten. #KeepFightingMichael

Quote
Muks_c
the flights should clear up by the end of this coming week

You say that, but you're relying on the winds changing direction as the volcano is still erupting. The problem with that as far as I'm aware, is that it's not your bog standard wind, it's the jet streams, which are relatively constant. A small change in direction might be enough for Britain given how small we are, but it could be a month before western mainland Europe is clear.

To have an idea how extreme it could be, the last time a similar eruption happened of the same magnitude, it kept on erupting for 2 years in 1821. Air companies are currently flying trials as we speak. Basically they're very worried about a repeat of a 1982 BA Jumbo that flew into a volcanic ash cloud. Once you're up in the air its very hard to know as it won't be detected on standard radar, it just appears as if nothing is there.

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97kirkc Wrote:
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> To have an idea how extreme it could be, the last
> time a similar eruption happened of the same magnitude, it kept on erupting for 2 years in
> 1821. Air companies are currently flying trials as we speak. Basically they're very worried about a
> repeat of a 1982 BA Jumbo that flew into a volcanic ash cloud. Once you're up in the air its
> very hard to know as it won't be detected on standard radar, it just appears as if nothing is there.

Before >> Just wanted to see if with these extreme circumstances if they would do anything whilst stuck here to use the time as effective as possible, but if they are packing now, it'll be lots of card games in the Hotels then.

About the Ash cloud......I know love the fact how the British public want the planes to start again and take a chance that it won't cause any problems! Though before they get on that plane I wonder how many would get on knowing the 'chance' bit may mean? Which is flying with no engines towards the ground @ around 600mph dropping anything up to 25,000 feet to allow fresh air to flush out the engines and then re-fire them & hope the oxygen starved engine fires up again as they hurtle towards the very solid ground/water/housing estate, etc

Andy

gav Wrote:
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> > the flights should clear up by the end of this
> coming week
>
>
> You say that, but you're relying on the winds
> changing direction as the volcano is still
> erupting. The problem with that as far as I'm
> aware, is that it's not your bog standard wind,
> it's the jet streams, which are relatively
> constant. A small change in direction might be
> enough for Britain given how small we are, but it
> could be a month before western mainland Europe is
> clear.

ah right, i didn't realise it was still erupting, and that eruptions can last years. in that case, the world's fecked

are disgruntled travellers going to boycott Iceland stores, the way the Irish stopped buying Henry vacuum cleaners after Thierry cheated Ireland out of the World Cup place?

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RIP Jules, never to be forgotten. #KeepFightingMichael

They'll fly 'em into Italy/Spain and transport them by road before the end of the week if it hasnt cleared

Sim

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All Hail The New York Giants - Winners of Superbowl XXI, XXV and XLII!

"I'd love to know what goes on in that crazy head of yours sometimes, Sim..." - Locke Cole

sasjag Wrote:
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> They'll fly 'em into Italy/Spain and transport
> them by road before the end of the week if it
> hasnt cleared

yes, until the wind moves it any further - they can at least get into Spain via the USA, according to Jaime Alguersuari on twitter:

"Increible! Shangai- beijing, beijing- new york, new york- madrid, madrid- barcelona! Thank you iceland!!gracias islandia"

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X (@ed24f1)

They're definitely lucky this happened at a time when they have 3 weeks before the next race, as has been said. If they end up being unable to fly, can they not ship it? It'd take longer of course, but they could surely still get all the team personnel and their gear to Spain in time for the start of race week? And once they're back in Europe, travelling between races would be much less of a problem anyway.


97kirkc Wrote:
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> To have an idea how extreme it could be, the last
> time a similar eruption happened of the same
> magnitude, it kept on erupting for 2 years in
> 1821.

There's also apparently the very real possibility of this eruption triggering an eruption of a volcano near to it called Katla, which is much larger(the crater is 10km across) and would be way more devastating, since it's also under a glacier, bigger than the glacier this one was under.
As much as this disruption to air travel is unprecedented, it's surprising in a way that we've gone this long without anything like it happening before, given Iceland's proximity to mainland Europe and its history as a volcano hotspot.

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it'd take far too long by Ship i think

Sim

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All Hail The New York Giants - Winners of Superbowl XXI, XXV and XLII!

"I'd love to know what goes on in that crazy head of yours sometimes, Sim..." - Locke Cole

If it really did get a bit desperate they can fly directly to Spain at the moment as well as Greece, Lithuania, Portugal, Russia, Turkey or the Ukraine in terms of what's available in and around Europe.

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From the Autosport article:
" and early indications from airlines have warned that they may even have to wait until early May for a next available seat."

This is where it pays to be a team with an airline sponsor (Ferrari, Williams, Virgin, Lotus, Force India)

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X (@ed24f1)

SchueyFan Wrote:
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> From the Autosport article:
> " and early indications from airlines have warned
> that they may even have to wait until early May
> for a next available seat."
>
> This is where it pays to be a team with an airline
> sponsor (Ferrari, Williams, Virgin, Lotus, Force
> India)


Imagine if all teams came to the grid with airline logos at the next race :p

i heared schumi left china onboard mr ecclestone's jet, destination unknown

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used to be GPGSL's Nick Heidfeld

n00binio Wrote:
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> i heared schumi left china onboard mr ecclestone's
> jet, destination unknown


Ecclestone's off to Bangkok.

I think everything will probably get to Barcelona in time. I think the team's main concern is that the cars won't have much time in the factories to be properly stripped down and serviced. I sense a few all nighters all round.

Getting the main infrastructure to Barcelona isn't going to be a major problem, as the bulk is taken by road anyway and would have probably been booked on the ferries long ago. The main problem is getting the cars and personnel back to Europe from China, though I suspect the larger teams may have some parts of the defunct test teams still there to lean on.

Jamie Alguersuari has made it to Barcelona already.