Some airlines have hundreds of thousands of passengers in a back-log to get back home to Europe and have suggested some people may have to wait until early May to get home.
McLaren boss, Martin Whitmarsh has suggested that although it’s too early to panic at the moment, teams can begin to worry about getting back to the UK if flights in and out of Europe remain grounded for any longer than a week.
Mount Eyjafjallajokull has bellowed out an ash cloud that has now reached 30’000 feet and is still rising, grounding all UK flights and many European flights – not good news when you have 40’000 tonnes of F1 freight to get back from Shanghai.
The race at the Circuit de Catalunya isn’t due to be run for another three weeks but teams such as Mercedes and Virgin have major updates planned for their cars and a long delay may jeopardize whether the cars get the turn around time the teams are wanting.
Whitmarsh, also the President of the team alliance, FOTA, told Autosport, “It hasn’t created the chaos yet. We are not so much worried about the people because we will find a way home, but we have got to get the cars back, and we haven’t had any word yet from the freight.”
“We have a range of upgrades that we hope to put on for Barcelona so that could be a bit chaotic if we don’t get the freight back. As for the people, everyone in this room will get home – it just might be a slightly more tortuous route than normal.”
Asked “when would be the time to start panicking?” Whitmarsh suggested that if the freight is in Shanghai any longer than a week then McLaren, and the other teams, may have to think long and hard of an alternative transport solution.
“I think if we lose three or four days we can live with it, if we lose it for a week or beyond then it becomes challenging. Again, we will find a way but that is a bigger concern than getting people home – we will get there.”
At the moment Spanish airports remain un-affected by the ash, it is anticipated that should delays look to be extensive then the F1 world may have to ship directly to Barcelona meaning that any upgrades may have to be made for the Monaco Grand Prix instead.
