Watson: “2016 boasts longest and toughest calendar ever”
Published on 09 March 2016 by Johan Peeters
2016 boasts the longest and toughest calendar ever seen in the sport, with no fewer than 21 races. As Team Manager, it falls to Graham Watson to ensure that our team personnel at the race track are fit and well and working as efficiently as possible, especially when it comes to those all-important pit stops.
"Our personnel at the track this year are pretty much the same as before, apart from bringing a couple of youngsters. The aim has been to streamline the team, becoming more professional and working as a cohesive unit, by upping our standards over the past year with the idea of moving forward still further this season."
"In recent years we have gone from a calendar with 16 races and a weekend at home in between each one, to a situation similar to joining the military and going on a long tour of duty. That is why we have introduced some younger mechanics, because they bring a level of enthusiasm and a fresh edge to those who have done the job for multiple seasons. 21 races is a big ask for anybody. We have got a small pool of people in the background who work in a test team car build program and they're younger guys as well. They're available for us to use if we need to transfer staff in and out. But honestly, it's difficult, because you need continuity through the race group to work like a team during the pit stops and the way we operate over a weekend, so if you swap too many people in and out it's almost like starting again every weekend.”
“If you bring a new group in, suddenly an engine change that should take two hours goes to four hours. The current calendar means we're right on the cusp of exceeding the ability of the people to want to do it for a long-term job, because it's very taxing on your life outside of the sport."
"Apart from looking at how we can make the personnel more effective and efficient, we have also done a lot of work over the winter on our equipment, specifically what we use during the pit stops. This type of work is an area where we are allowed to collaborate with other teams and naturally we have worked with Red Bull in Milton Keynes to share the technology, the costs and the information.
"I believe, and I hope I'm proved right this season, that our pit stops will take a good step forward from where we were last year. To be fair, by the end of last season, over the last nine races, we were the fourth fastest team in pit stops on average time, so the momentum is there, we just need to continue it into Melbourne. We should make a good step, definitely."
"In terms of regulation changes affecting our trackside operations, we've lost an hour of curfew time on the Friday nights, so less time to work on the cars. Obviously it's the same for everybody but it's going to make things a little bit interesting probably for the first four races of the year because everything's new and you're still trying to find your feet."
