I was just checking this afternoon, and apparently its only 60 days until the start of FP1 in Melbourne. Exciting huh ? I for one am a little bit scared…
Its been a long time since I posted on this site. October, November, December and now January have been a blur of long nights and tough decisions. The new cars are different beasts to the 2013 cars and as we have got more and more into the detail, its become apparent that more and more will change and how much more complexity will go into the design. There is a lot new in 2014.
The fan part of me cannot wait until the new season starts. I am desperate to see the other team’s new cars and find out what they will look like and what new ideas they have come up with. The engineer side of me however desperately wants more time to work on our own car, get more prepared and refine what we have done. Its going to be a busy, but very short winter test period and the first race will be upon us very soon. I doubt whether there is a single team in the pitlane which will feel like it is fully prepared when we fly to Australia.
Its a different side of the coin I suppose when you work in F1. As a fan, you just want to see the racing and you perhaps don’t appreciate fully how much is involved between the old car disappearing in Brazil and the new cars rolling out in Melbourne. Its a side of the sport that I think would make fascinating viewing but of course, no team wants to lay bare its preparations for the new season if it thinks another team might gain advantage from that. This is a competitive sport.
The work going on behind in the background is still continuing at a furious pace. Designers are still designing, machinists are still machining and mechanics are still assembling. This will be round the clock until we get to Jerez for the opening test, and probably until the cars leave for Melbourne in the freight. Then we will need spares sending out (as many as we can gather but probably not as many as we need) and we will be working hard on the next uprgrade. Life in F1 never stops, even in the off-season so whilst most F1 fans are impatiently counting down the days, if you worked in F1 you probably would rather you could stop the clock for a week or 2 because 60 days doesn’t sound like a lot to me !
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