After the race in Budapest, Formula 1 seemed to be entering a period of time reminiscent of an era when life was lived at a more relaxed pace. To start with, there would be three weeks before the next grand prix and secondly, the race cars and equipment would travel there and back from Trieste, Italy by ship.


Last year, Turkey became the first ever race described by the teams' logisitics people, as a "float-away" as opposed to "flyaway," which describes the races outside Europe, where teams have to get organised without their trucks or motorhomes. Turkey falls between the two in that the trucks and motorhomes in the paddock mean the event has an identical feel to the European races, but the vehicles do most of the journey by sea, rather than by road.


In charge of Ferrari's logisitics operations is Miodrag Kotur and his experience of last year's inaugural Turkish race will no doubt come in useful.

Follow up:

"It all went well," recalls Kotur. "We hesitated between going by boat or sending the cars by road from Hungary. But given that there might have been complex problems with getting through customs in countries like Serbia and Bulgaria that are not in the EU, we opted for the boat from Trieste to Istanbul. It is a 56 hour sailing."

"It was really well organised by a company that specialises in international truck transportation. They reserved ships just for F1 without allowing normal trucks on board," he revealed. "It was especially important for the return trip to Trieste to run on time as we had the Italian Grand Prix at Monza just a fortnight later. With a 56 hour crossing there was no question of missing the boat."

"This year, our trucks will leave Trieste on Friday 18 August and we arrive on the Monday morning for the short drive to the circuit outside Istanbul," he added. "Once we are there it is just like any other European race, except that it takes place in Asia. The infrastructure is all new with plenty of room as the circuit has been designed to have a long life while meeting the most up to date requirements of the teams. The Turkish customs cooperate and facilitate all our administrative needs. Everything is done really quickly and we certainly had no problems last year."