MONTREAL -- When ING-Renault drivers Giancarlo Fisichella and Heikki Kovalainen hit the track today in a practice session for the Canadian Grand Prix on Sunday, the Formula One race team's co-ordinator will take a couple of seconds to celebrate quietly.
Then, Geoff Simmonds will go on high alert.
Simmonds must be ready to respond at a moment's notice to ensure his team has everything it needs at the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve, even if that means getting a replacement engine from its factory in France.
"We can do anything, although we have had a few close calls in the eight years I've been with the team," Simmonds said this week. "In the worse-case scenario, we would stick someone on a flight and send them out here at all costs if it's something that important."
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In charge of transporting 32,000 kilograms of equipment to 17 Formula One races around the world and setting up Renault's onsite facilities, the backbreaking, behind-the-scenes work by Simmonds and his crew silently keeps the show on the road.
The 10-member logistics crew goes a long way to get things done.
Renault's equipment flies the equivalent of three times around the globe in a typical F1 season, while the truck fleet it uses for European races logs the same number of kilometres as the distance between the Earth and the moon. In between, the crew often works 18-hour days and stays away from home for weeks at a time.
"You get used to it," Simmonds said. "The first race is always harder because you have a winter away, but once we get to Canada, we are back in the swing of things and it tends to be a little easier."
For the crews, the only discernible difference between preparing for races in Europe and the "fly-aways" such as Montreal and the U.S. Grand Prix in Indianapolis next week is the air freight.
Essentially, the crew takes everything out of the trucks and packs it onto eight palettes that fit into a Boeing 747 cargo plane. Shipping costs, along with feeding and housing the 70 personnel who travel to North America, usually reach about $1-million (U.S.).
Renault brought three complete cars and one spare chassis to Montreal, along with thousands of spare parts, a complete garage setup with tools and equipment, cooking facilities and the team's marketing gear.
Simmonds and his crew began packing up the equipment 10 days ago, after the Monaco Grand Prix. The palettes arrived in Montreal last Saturday and waited for the crew to begin unpacking on Monday.
By the time the Renault drivers made an appearance at Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve yesterday morning, the team's paddock and garage areas had been up and running more than a day.
"We usually arrive on Thursday morning and everything has already been installed, but we have seen the work that goes on back at the factory and it's just amazing to see how everything gets packed up, shipped and set up so quickly at the track," Kovalainen said.
"In F1, you only ever see the tip of the iceberg on TV, and this is the perfect example. All the work that goes in behind the scenes is completely essential for us to be able to race strongly on Sunday. Forgetting a part just isn't an option - and the professionalism of the team means it doesn't happen."
Even with careful preparation, Simmonds's crew has hours of work ahead of them after the checkered flag flies on Sunday to get everything ready for shipping to Indianapolis on Monday.
As the crew packs, the mechanics will strip and rebuild the team's two cars before they get put in crates and sent to the airport late Sunday.
"When the flag drops, it's all hands on deck and we try to get as much packing done as we can before the cars come back from the parc ferme [inspection] when the mechanics have to deal with them," he said.
"Everything should be in the palettes by midnight and then we fly to Indianapolis on Monday afternoon, and, starting Tuesday morning, we repeat the process all over again."
