Blogging from Korea: Sunday

Posted on Monday 25 Oct 2010 and tagged with blog, korea.

It was good to get both cars home in the points today, but that didn’t come without its stresses. During the build-up to the start, for example, we didn’t know what tyres we were going to fit because the track conditions were very unpredictable. We took eight sets of tyres to the grid for each car, which was a logistical nightmare because we had to find many more power units than normal.

The race itself ran surprisingly smoothly, given the tricky conditions. The track took longer to dry than expected and there were fewer pitstops as a result. Unfortunately, Nico had to make an unscheduled stop close to the finish due to a slow puncture, but he managed to claim 10th place on the final lap, which was a good effort.

It was dark by the end of the race. Officially, it ended 15 minutes after sunset, which must have been a first for a daytime race! The delay had ramifications for the pack-up as well because we were more than an hour late in getting started and that meant we were at the track until gone midnight, which made for a long day.

At least it had stopped raining and we were able to pack everything away dry. We won’t be seeing the freight again for a week and if it’s wet for that period of time you end up with what we call “racing ginger” (rust) on everything and that creates a lot more work the other end.

We have three people on the race team heading to Hawaii this week, but everyone else is going back to England before heading to Brazil. The chefs fly to Sao Paulo on Saturday to start sourcing food; I fly on Sunday, so it will be great to get at least part of a weekend at home!