How to the F1 teams travel ? Do they charter cargo planes to fly or the equipment/cars everywhere, do the drivers fly with the brass on the companies corporate planes ??? It is a tremendous amount of equiptment to be flying around from country to country plus back to the test track in between.
Within Europe they use their fleet of trucks and the teams fly commercial airlines and the drivers/managers their corporate/private jets. On the so called "Fly away races" in the Americas and the Middle and Far East and Australia, they rent a couple of 747 and put the cars and all the equipment on palettes (at least that's how it used to be a few years back). The teams then fly either on the same plane or on commercial airliners. A few drivers/managers even fly the distance in their private jets. Winning WC points is crucial as it gives you payback bonus points from Bernie for the transportation cost.
When my wife and I were at the USGP 2 years ago we saw Zsalt (then the Jordan test driver) at the Indiapolis airport waiting for a commercial flight, we also saw and met Justing Wilson also waiting for a commercial flight. I do seen before that the "heavy equipment" is flown on cargo planes strapped onto pallets. Fed Ex probable flys the Williams F1 team equipment since they are a sponser and I do believe that whoever wins the constructors championship also gets all the equpiment transported for free. From what I have heard, Michael Schumacher has a "custom" Boeing 737 jet that he uses. Anyone else have other info?
MS has this plane bellow: Dassault Falcon 2000 notice his trademark on the tail. Image Unavailable, Please Login
My training partner's dad is an ex-Top Gun pilot and now flies for Fedex. He's flown the Williams team around quite a bit, but I've never gotten any juicy stories.
I believe that FOM may actually own three 747 cargo that fly the long haul. Upper level personnel fly private in Europe, crew on commercial unless close to home. When I was doing it we had charter planes to most european races, for convenience. we often got back to the UK and home in time to watch the race on the Beeb! For North and South America or Africa and Asia, we flew commercial. Brian
I thought that happened if you scored a WC point ... hence why Minardi, etc. are so desperate to score atleast 1 point. Pete
Here are some of the private jets owned by Formula 1 management, team owners and drivers. Bernie Eccelstone's British Aerospace BAe-146. European Minardi F1's BAC 111 One-Eleven. Flavio Briatore's Canadair CL-600-2B16 Challenger 601-3R. Rubens Barrichello's Cessna 750 Citation X. The tail of Michael Schumacher's Falcon 2000 is visible in the background of this photo.
Ron Dennis's Canadair CL-600-2B16 Challenger 604. Jaques Villeneuve's Dassault Falcon 50. Ralf Schumacher's Israel IAI-1126 Galaxy. Martin Brundle's Cessna 500 Citation.
I'm not sure on that myself. I thought that scoring at least one point gets you the travel costs subsidized, but not entirely free. Hey, think about Bernie, would he ever do anything for free?
Sorry,but registration beginning VP is Bermudan no Cayman Islands.His aircraft is maintained at a facility I used to work for and I got the opportunity to go onboard it,it is quite basic for a Business jet but very nice none the less.I would like to say the same about dealing with MS Himself but it is not. Dave Mc
Hmm, interesting remark. Did you deal with MS himself or with his managers/handlers? I heard a similar comment from somebody who directly dealt with his handler/manager, but not really about Michael.
Andreas You have a PM,To everyone else I have chosen to answer Andreas by PM as i do not think the answer is appropriate for a public forum.Hope You all understand this,sorry Dave Mc
It isn't some great secret that people that aren't in his circle of people he wishes to please find him to be a p***k, is it? At least that's what I hear from people that have worked with him in the past. That's part of his genius, is being able to make "the people" love him, while he thumbs his nose at them.
Perhaps the race did it, but qualifying certainly didn't! Taken from http://www.itv-f1.com/News_Article.aspx?PO_ID=31201 "I'm Michael Schumacher. I don't need to test my driving ability, but it's certainly interesting to do what I have to do from where I am now." Schumacher said he did not believe the spin was purely down to driver error. "I hope we find the answer why. I don't want to say it's not a mistake of mine if it turns out to be but I think I would be a little bit surprised." You can't deny the guy's talent, but the head swelling that's come with it....
Actually I find it quite refreshing that he shows some attitude once in a while. I find that much more believable than the usual Kumbaya-lets-all-hug-the-floor-sweeper-back-in-Maranello nonsense he rambles on about in the press conferences. He is the best and therefore he can show some attitude, fine by me. I like it when JPM does it as well as it is more honest than the usual rah-rah for the team and the sponsors.
At the airport at Indy this year I ran into: Ross Brawn Jarno Trulli Mario Theissen Takuma Sato Arie Lyundyke Most of the engineering staff from BMW, Renault, BAR, West... And the one guy on the Ferrari team who has red/brown hair, and a goatee.. Kinda thicker.. Always see him on the F1 broadcasts.. Todd
I believe that Paul Stoddard's European Aviation company transports most teams for the 'flyaway' races. He fills a couple of 747's with the cars and equipment. I seem to remember that Ferrari charter their own jet which leaves from Milan. The personnel sem to have a fairly random method of getting there, using everything from budget airlines to private jets.
