26 OCTOBER 2011
Team Manager Dave O’Neill and Race Team PA Laura Booth have been working hard for months getting the team’s equipment and people organised for the race in New Delhi
At Marussia Virgin Racing we’re ready for some shock and awe at the Indian Grand Prix.
The awe will come from the capital city’s mix of medieval mayhem, Imperial splendour and the hustle-and-bustle of a thriving modern metropolis.
But the surprise factor will surely be discovering how 12.75 million people share the roads with budding racing drivers, rickety rickshaws - and, a fair few cows!
Our Race Team PA Laura Booth has at least known what to expect after visiting Delhi last year to begin the planning for the race.
“When you see it for the first time it’s a real eye-opener,” Laura explains. “There are rickshaws on the road, cars, buses, animals - it is chaos, but great to experience.
"Up until last November I had never been so didn’t know what to expect. But India has been my most testing race to organise the travel arrangements for.
“It’s all new. We can’t drive there so we have had to arrange all the transfers and everybody has flown in at different times.We have had four or five transfers each day from airport and then all the transfers to the track as everybody goes in at different times.
As Team Manager Dave O’Neill explained: “I was in India for a few weeks five years ago, so I am familiar with the country. Our 60+ team needs to run like a well-oiled machine so we need to be prepared for every eventuality."
For all at Marussia Virgin Racing the trip to India comes just a few days after everyone returned back home from two weeks - or more - on the road in Korea and Japan.
And when they get back from India they’ll only have a few days to recover before going back out to Abu Dhabi.
So it’s important that the engineers and mechanics get a chance to keep in touch with loved ones back home in Britain.
Dave explains: “We are all there to work and for the guys the most important thing is always what goes on at the circuit. When we’re there, we all want to do the best job we possibly can.
“But we want the guys to feel comfortable as much as we can. We try and make the environment as much of a ‘home from home’ as possible.
“A lot of them share rooms, so they have to choose a good 'roomie' for the year. You definitely want someone you get on with. A lot of them have young children, so we have a telephone box which we set up at the back of the garage. There’s a Skype line and normal land-lines, which are all extensions from the factory, so it’s like ringing a British number. Communication is the key to keeping everyone happy.
“My job as Team Manager is a bit like organising a travelling army. We do recces from the hotel to the circuit to see how long it will take in rush hour. We try and get the timings as close as possible as more time in bed for the guys is good for them.
“A lot of it is discipline. If you get 10 people in a van and one guy is always late in the morning, if you add that up, 15 minutes every day, that’s four or five days a year. That side of our life has to be pretty regimented and it’s even more important for a race like this one, where it’s a real voyage into the unknown.”
Credit: Marussia Virgin Racing (www.marussiavirginracing.com)
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