Rescue mission averts F1 freight delay for Australian GP
Formula 1 headed off the danger of some teams being left without equipment for this weekend’s Australian Grand Prix thanks to a last-minute rescue mission to fast-track freight to Melbourne.
Amid worldwide freight delays that have been triggered by rising transport costs and the impact of the Ukraine war, shipments of equipment that teams had sent weeks ago risked not making it on time.
A ship containing the freight of three teams, which had originally been expected to take 42 days, was delayed by more than one week that left it on a tight timetable to make it to Australia.
But amid the risk of further delays, F1’s official freight partner DHL intervened last weekend and took the decision to pull the freight from the ship at Singapore and fly it down to Melbourne instead.
DHL’s Vice President of Motorsport Logistics, Paul Fowler, took the decision to travel to Singapore to personally oversee the rescue mission – knowing that any delay to freight could impact running in Melbourne.
With planes rerouted from Los Angeles and Vietnam, the freight was removed from the cargo ship and loaded on to two Boeing 777s and a 767-300 before being flown direct to Melbourne.
The delivery arrived in Australia on Monday morning, ensuring all teams had their equipment in time ahead of this weekend's third round of the F1 championship.
https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/re...an-gp/9658057/