Japan, Malaysia, Australia, Europe, Asia... Three weeks, three countries, three continents. The World Championship moves vertiginously from one place to the other and with it more than 1500 people that spend the Grand Prix weekend working with no chance to rest in order to let everything run smoothly. Mechanics, riders, engineers, cameramen, public relations people, journalists and organisers. All of them make up a little universe with many different tasks and nationalities.

Three are the airplanes needed by the World Championship in order to move the teams� and the organisation�s material. More than a 166 tons have been transported from Europe to Japan, then to Malaysia and to Australia. Approximately 145 of them belong to the teams, 10 are tyres and some 12 tons are material used by Dorna � the company managing the championship � to fit-out the circuits and provide them with the necessary infrastructure to stage the races.

After the end of each of the three transoceanic races, the material is picked up and introduced in the transport boxes of every team. There are about 20 to 25 heavy trucks to transport the boxes from the circuits to the cargo terminals of the airports. Then they are loaded onto the platforms that are afterwards taken into the hold of the cargo aircrafts, usually, Boeing 747. The priority in the said operation is, in addition of securing the load, to make the best use of the available space.

Once the planes have reached their destination, the same procedure in carried out, but in opposite sense: the boxes are distributed and loaded in other trucks, that will take everything to the circuit, where the staff of the different teams and the organisation, who are in charge of the infrastructure and set-up, will put everything in its place to have it all ready for the Grand Prix.

After Australia, end of the tour, the next material movement is due, this time bound for Valencia, where the 2003 season will come to its end on November 2nd.

Planning a trip

Airports, waiting halls, passports, airplanes, more airports, car travels, hotels, circuits, waiting hours, queuing at the customs control, uncountable hours in the air, bags... It is not easy for a rider to jump from one country to the other in a couple of hours. To understand the effort needed it is worth having a look at the detailed travel plan of Toni Elias moving around Asia and Australia in only three weeks.

Monday 29th October:
6.50 am: Departure of the flight from Barcelona to Frankfurt. Three and a half hours waiting time at the Frankfurt airport.

1:40 pm: Departure of the flight from Frankfurt to Tokyo. 11 hours flying and arrival at the Narita International Airport.

Tuesday 30th October:
7:40 am: Arrival in Tokyo, wait to gather the team and transfer to Motegi by car or bus. 3 hours trip to make 130 kilometres.

12:00 pm.: Arrival at the Twin Ring Hotel Motegi located inside the circuit�s facilities.

Rest of Tuesday and Wednesday 1st November: Rest days to get used to the time change.

Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday: Working at the circuit.

Sunday 5th October: After the race, 3 hours back to Tokyo at night, accommodation at a hotel close to the Narita airport.

Monday 6th October, 12 pm.: Departure of the flight from Tokyo to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Arrival at 7pm. Transfer to the hotel.

Tuesday 7th and Wednesday 8th October: Rest days.

Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday: Working at the circuit

Monday 13th October, 7:50 pm.: Departure of the flight from Kuala Lumpur to Melbourne, Australia.

Tuesday 14th October 5:50 am: Arrival at Tullamarine International Airport in Melbourne. Transfer to Phillip Island by car and bus. Two and a half hours.

Tuesday 14th and Wednesday, 15th October: Rest days.

Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday: Working at the circuit.

Monday 20th October 12:50 am.: Departure of the flight from Melbourne to Singapore. Arrival at 06:30 am.

Monday 20th October 9:00 am.: Departure of the flight from Singapore to London. Arrival at Heathrow Airport at 3:30 pm, local time.

Monday 20th October, 4:55 pm.: Departure of the flight from London to Barcelona, arrival at 8:10 pm. End of the journey.

The Repsol Telef�nica Movistar Team in Japan, Malaysia and Australia

The figures of the Team Repsol Telef�nica Movistar give us an example of the logistics, infrastructure and costs that a world championship team has to bear. The person in charge of controlling all movements of the team, organising the team�s personnel, making hotel reservations and taking care that everything happens the way it was planned is Maria Jos� Botella, who is also Press Manager of the team lead by Jorge Mart�nez Aspar.

Number of people travelling: 20
Material moved by the team in kg: 4.900
Cost�per kg moved: 5 dollars
Hotel rooms needed for each race: 10
Visas needed to enter the countries: 40. (20 in Japan and 20 in Australia)
Rented cars needed: 8 (cars and people carriers)

The World upside down

Frequent time changes force the riders to an especial acclimatisation effort to be able to perform at the highest level in the whole world.

All the efforts made by the team members when travelling from one GP to the other with long travel journeys, connections and waiting hours has an additionally difficult aspect especially suffered by the riders, and that is adapting the body as fast as possible to big time differences.

Most of the riders are already veterans in this respect. All of them have already travelled around the world several times, but leaving the European continent on Monday to fight for the victory in Japan or Australia on Sunday needs a period of adaptation nobody can skip. When the practice starts on Friday morning, everything has to work perfect.

We have asked Repsol riders Toni Elias and Dani Pedrosa. Both of them have tricks to overcome the everlasting flight and the large time differences.

Dani Pedrosa: "The first year I did the whole Championship I tried to begin to change the sleeping rhythm at home. But sleeping during the day to adapt to the Japanese time was very difficult. Therefore, to adapt as soon as possible when we race in Japan or Australia, we travel to the corresponding country much earlier than we would for a European GP. What we also do is to change our clocks as soon as we are in the airplane. We already try to make up our minds thinking that the time is different before the take-off, and that�s already adaptation. I usually sleep at least eight hours a day and I adapt easier when we travel west. I have more problems when we travel east, i.e. Asia or Oceania. Normally the body gets used to the time difference in 48 hours so we�re able to get to the first practice on Friday in good shape ".

Toni Elias: "Sometimes I try to do the time change before I leave home, but that�s complicated. You have to sleep during the day and you cannot always make it. What I do is to try hard to get used to the new time in the plane, but that means loosing a lot of sleep. You have to stay awake several hours reading, listening to music or watching movies. With this system and a couple of days to adapt you can arrive at the practice on Friday in a reasonably good shape. The body is perfectly adapted on Sunday but that isn�t of much use, because then it�s time to travel back home ".

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