F1 averted a freight trouble for this weekend’s Australian GP after a prompt move from DHL in a rescue-type mission involving Singapore.
Amid the COVID-19 limitations and the brand new trouble owing to sanctions due to Russian invasion of Ukraine, MotoGP has seen its fair share of trouble in Argentina recently. The above points were not a direct reason for the mess, but it contributed towards it.
On F1 side, the races in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia underwent on a smoother scale, but this weekend’s Australian GP could have seen freight troubles if not for the timely intervention by DHL. It saved the day with everything reaching Melbourne on Monday.
The ship containing the freight in a 42-day trip was delayed by nearly two weeks due to the sanctions. To add to that, some teams like Aston Martin had some changes on their kit side which needed to be replaced at a point before it reached Australia.
DHL’s Vice President of Motorsport Logistics, Paul Fowler, flew from the UK base to Singapore to sort out the delay. He also looked at the removal and repackaging of the freight, where they put the stuff into two Boeing 777s and a 767-300.
In fact, one of the planes had to be relocated from Los Angeles and one from Vietnam so that the freight arrived in Melbourne on time. All this had to be done keeping in mind the increasing cost of freight due to several factors – something that the F1 teams are in discussions about.
“There is almost a bidding war now,” said Fowler. Rates from Europe to Asia to Europe that were pitching at about [US] $900 a container is now about $20,000. All teams have five sets of kit, and that is stretching to six, because of the extra races. So the stuff you see in the garages, on the walls, the pitlane gantries, the perches that the team personnel sit on, is all sea freighted in.”
Meanwhile, Red Bull’s chief Christian Horner alerted about cost discussions after Saudi Arabia. “The freight costs are likely to double this year. So there’s some discussion going on later this week. We’re talking multiple millions [of increase],” he stated.
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