Williams F1

With back-to-back races in Valencia and at Spa-Francorchamps, the last week has been very busy. But if you’re afraid of hard work, Formula One is not the business for you!

We started dismantling the AT&T Williams motorhome as soon as the European Grand Prix ended last Sunday and we were done by 2300, which was our earliest finish of the year. The trucks then hit the road for the 1,056-mile journey to Spa, while everyone who works in the motorhome flew from Valencia to Liege at lunchtime on Monday. We landed in Liege at 1530 and went to the Holiday Inn, which was our base for the Belgian Grand Prix weekend.

The trucks drove non-stop to Spa and arrived on schedule at midnight on Monday. We then left the hotel at 0500 on Tuesday to begin setting up in the F1 paddock, but things didn’t go according to plan. The security guards inexplicably stopped us moving the trucks until 0700, which cost us two hours, and there was a thunderstorm mid-morning, which delayed us further. But we still had everything set up by 1800, which was a good effort by everyone involved.

All that was left to do on Wednesday was connect up the communications and the drainage system, and then give everything a good clean. We were done by early afternoon, so we headed to the Carrefour supermarket nearby to do a monster shop. We filled six trolleys and spent in excess of 800 euros.

Our head chef, Adam Dixon, decided the a la carte menu for our guests  on Thursday morning, which was mussels, chips and mayonnaise (when in Belgium, do as the Belgiques…) and one of the girls then headed back to the Carrefour to buy more food, including all the fresh produce.

Friday was unusually quiet. We had a British press breakfast in the morning, but there were just 20 guests for lunch, which was some way short of our record 75 earlier in the year. We were busier in the evening, however, because we had a Bridgestone dinner in the motorhome. It went smoothly and we were back at the hotel by 10pm.

Saturday and Sunday went smoothly as well, although neither day was as busy – or as late – as in Valencia. After the race we began the dismantling process once again and with less time pressure, no-one worked as fast as the previous weekend, but we were still done by midnight.

On Monday morning I flew back to Vienna, but I don’t have much time to relax because I head to Zurich on Wednesday for a meeting with Fifa about the 2010 World Cup. When I’m not working for AT&T Williams, I run a company called ‘Iconic.Agency’, which offers full service management and consulting to businesses around the world. At the 2006 World Cup in Germany we looked after 380,000 guests over the space of a month and we’d love to do the same in South Africa next year.