TOKYO, Japan: The Suzuka circuit will lock its gates on Saturday as Typhoon Hagabis passes close by, bringing with it predicted heavy rain and strong winds, the F1 said on their website.
The qualifying has been moved to Sunday morning as a result just as it was in 2004 and 2010 in Japan but for those on the ground, the typhoon has caused much more than a timetable change.
It’s instigated a herculean ground operation to make things safe and ensure racing can go ahead as planned on Sunday…
“For us, we’re a little bit in no man’s land, or a voyage of discovery is probably a better expression,” said F1 Sporting Director Steve Nielson on their website.
“We’re going to have to move our F1 Broadcast Centre — the operational, mission critical guts of it — into the pit building up here to ensure that when we come in on Sunday morning, the timing, the start lights, the GPS, the light panels around the circuit are in an environment where they have a chance of surviving the storm.”
Teams are wary of the typhoon
F1 teams are also taking steps, with Mercedes confirming that they’ll be taking down the usual panelling at the front and back of their garage.
The teams will fold down their pit wall gantry and covering it with netting, keeping equipment in the garage off the floor in case of flooding, amongst other things.
“We’ve not done it before. The guys that are having to do it are going to have to work for the rest of tonight. We hope to have all the big bits in place tonight as the rain and storm gets worse.”
F1 Sporting Director Steve Nielson
“From an F1 operations perspective, implementing our extreme weather plan will require a significant effort,” said Andrew James, F1 Technical Director. “It will need an ‘all hands on deck’ approach to accomplish.”
