The Formula 1 schedule is an ever-increasing beast these days and I know there are a number of concerns up and down the pitlane about how it might work.
Many of my colleagues agree with me that we need to address those concerns before we find ourselves in a situation that it's difficult to back out of.
First of all, we need to understand the differences between the big, manufacturer-based teams and the rest of the field (the majority) in terms of their personnel and resources.
The set-up process for F1 teams is becoming more strained © XPB |
I've worked for teams where we would disassemble the cars into manageable pieces at the end of a race on a Sunday evening and the components would all be transferred to the factory, where race support teams and sub assembly crews would swing into action and take over.
This enormous and choreographed operation would unpack the freight and distribute it to the various corners of the factory either late on a Sunday night, or early Monday morning.
While parts were being stripped, serviced, inspected or replaced and mileages recorded and updated in lifing systems, us race team mechanics would enjoy a few days off to recover from the tough weekend just gone.
Then, later that week, only when everything was ready for us, we'd be called back in to work to build up the freshly painted chassis with parts that had been prepared immaculately and meticulously and were waiting for us in the factory's race bays.
When the car was assembled, we'd hand it over and another team would load it into the trucks to be sent to the next race. We'd then go home and enjoy another couple of days of downtime before flying out to the track, where our race garage had been built up and prepared in advance by another crew who'd flown out early.
The whole process worked really well with each part of the team getting their rest days at different times, but allowing progress to be continuous.
The trouble with that type of system is that it takes a lot of people and a lot of associated cost.
At the other end of the grid, and in reality for more and more teams further up the field these days too, things have to be quite different.
Paddock curfew has changed the way mechanics work over weekends © LAT |
At a smaller team I was at, we would strip the cars on a Sunday evening, and fly back to the factory on Monday morning to meet the trucks and unload them ourselves. We'd continue to strip the assemblies into individual components, as there was no one else to do it, and deliver them as and when they were ready to the various departments for each process.
Because of the gradual drip-feeding of parts for the likes of crack checking, inspection or servicing, and the lack of personnel to do the job rapidly, we had to remain on site all week as we were the only ones able to deal with the mechanical side of the car.
As the parts began to be returned to us, we'd put them all back together as a rather slow, painful process. We had fewer mechanics anyway than the bigger teams, so the job just seemed to be a continuous slog where we were involved in almost every stage.
I'm not complaining, because I loved my job, as I still do, and it actually worked OK when we had 17 or 18 races. Twenty one races, though, is a very different story for the smaller, less well resourced teams.
Some of the old boys, who were in the pitlane years ago and I'm still in touch with, say to me we've got it easy these days with things like paddock curfews and mid-season shutdowns.
F1's summer break is definitely one of the better changes made in the past few years. It has given us all a break when we need it most, so I'm very grateful.
In order to achieve that two-week factory shutdown, though, we need a four-week gap between races, and I couldn't believe my eyes when next year's proposed calendar initially had that cut down to three.
Stopping production for two full weeks takes carefully thought-out planning in the week before; then we need another week to prepare and pack everything for the next event once the factory's reopened.
Fortunately that was changed this week following the FIA World Motor Sport Council, so we now have a gap between the German GP on July 31 and Belgium on August 28.
As for the curfew, designed to reduce the number hours we work at the track, the intentions are all great, but the reality's often different. The curfew's a good thing, but most teams now work longer hours on the Tuesday and Wednesday before a GP, just to try to ensure they won't need to break the curfew when it kicks in on Thursday evening.
A 17-race schedule, last seen in 2009, made life easier for team personnel © LAT |
There's also a culture developed now, certainly at my team, that the curfew time is the time we go home, rather than just the absolute final deadline.
With more back-to-back races next season because of the increased number of events and shorter season span, I can see teams needing to push that curfew even more and using more available hours in the days before it applies.
If we're thinking of cramming in more F1 races to line the pockets of the hierarchy, then we need to consider the implications for everyone involved. Bigger teams may well be able to increase staff numbers and have rotating shifts or crews, but for the smaller outfits - grand prix racing's bread and butter teams - the costs could be crippling.
Individuals could suffer more, with their families forced to make ever more sacrifices. But most importantly the consequences on safety, of teams being forced into stretching resources much more than they already are, could potentially be very serious indeed.
No one in F1 minds working hard, or long hours, but that's almost part of the problem.
Until someone at the top steps in and takes those considerations seriously, the old-school, macho culture up and down pitlane will continue to deliver whatever's asked of them for as long as it's asked... until, that is, we encounter a serious problem as a result.
The Formula 1 schedule is an ever-increasing beast these days and I know there are a number of concerns up and down the pitlane about how it might work.
Many of my colleagues agree with me that we need to address those concerns before we find ourselves in a situation that it's difficult to back out of.
First of all, we need to understand the differences between the big, manufacturer-based teams and the rest of the field (the majority) in terms of their personnel and resources.
The set-up process for F1 teams is becoming more strained © XPB |
I've worked for teams where we would disassemble the cars into manageable pieces at the end of a race on a Sunday evening and the components would all be transferred to the factory, where race support teams and sub assembly crews would swing into action and take over.
This enormous and choreographed operation would unpack the freight and distribute it to the various corners of the factory either late on a Sunday night, or early Monday morning.
While parts were being stripped, serviced, inspected or replaced and mileages recorded and updated in lifing systems, us race team mechanics would enjoy a few days off to recover from the tough weekend just gone.
Then, later that week, only when everything was ready for us, we'd be called back in to work to build up the freshly painted chassis with parts that had been prepared immaculately and meticulously and were waiting for us in the factory's race bays.
When the car was assembled, we'd hand it over and another team would load it into the trucks to be sent to the next race. We'd then go home and enjoy another couple of days of downtime before flying out to the track, where our race garage had been built up and prepared in advance by another crew who'd flown out early.
The whole process worked really well with each part of the team getting their rest days at different times, but allowing progress to be continuous.
The trouble with that type of system is that it takes a lot of people and a lot of associated cost.
At the other end of the grid, and in reality for more and more teams further up the field these days too, things have to be quite different.
Paddock curfew has changed the way mechanics work over weekends © LAT |
At a smaller team I was at, we would strip the cars on a Sunday evening, and fly back to the factory on Monday morning to meet the trucks and unload them ourselves. We'd continue to strip the assemblies into individual components, as there was no one else to do it, and deliver them as and when they were ready to the various departments for each process.
Because of the gradual drip-feeding of parts for the likes of crack checking, inspection or servicing, and the lack of personnel to do the job rapidly, we had to remain on site all week as we were the only ones able to deal with the mechanical side of the car.
As the parts began to be returned to us, we'd put them all back together as a rather slow, painful process. We had fewer mechanics anyway than the bigger teams, so the job just seemed to be a continuous slog where we were involved in almost every stage.
I'm not complaining, because I loved my job, as I still do, and it actually worked OK when we had 17 or 18 races. Twenty one races, though, is a very different story for the smaller, less well resourced teams.
Some of the old boys, who were in the pitlane years ago and I'm still in touch with, say to me we've got it easy these days with things like paddock curfews and mid-season shutdowns.
F1's summer break is definitely one of the better changes made in the past few years. It has given us all a break when we need it most, so I'm very grateful.
In order to achieve that two-week factory shutdown, though, we need a four-week gap between races, and I couldn't believe my eyes when next year's proposed calendar initially had that cut down to three.
Stopping production for two full weeks takes carefully thought-out planning in the week before; then we need another week to prepare and pack everything for the next event once the factory's reopened.
Fortunately that was changed this week following the FIA World Motor Sport Council, so we now have a gap between the German GP on July 31 and Belgium on August 28.
As for the curfew, designed to reduce the number hours we work at the track, the intentions are all great, but the reality's often different. The curfew's a good thing, but most teams now work longer hours on the Tuesday and Wednesday before a GP, just to try to ensure they won't need to break the curfew when it kicks in on Thursday evening.
A 17-race schedule, last seen in 2009, made life easier for team personnel © LAT |
There's also a culture developed now, certainly at my team, that the curfew time is the time we go home, rather than just the absolute final deadline.
With more back-to-back races next season because of the increased number of events and shorter season span, I can see teams needing to push that curfew even more and using more available hours in the days before it applies.
If we're thinking of cramming in more F1 races to line the pockets of the hierarchy, then we need to consider the implications for everyone involved. Bigger teams may well be able to increase staff numbers and have rotating shifts or crews, but for the smaller outfits - grand prix racing's bread and butter teams - the costs could be crippling.
Individuals could suffer more, with their families forced to make ever more sacrifices. But most importantly the consequences on safety, of teams being forced into stretching resources much more than they already are, could potentially be very serious indeed.
No one in F1 minds working hard, or long hours, but that's almost part of the problem.
Until someone at the top steps in and takes those considerations seriously, the old-school, macho culture up and down pitlane will continue to deliver whatever's asked of them for as long as it's asked... until, that is, we encounter a serious problem as a result.