SINGAPORE: Right after last weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix (GP) in Sepang, Malaysia, a fleet of about 200 to 300 trucks will cross the Causeway to Singapore in a race against time.
The Formula 1 (F1) race, originally scheduled for April 10 to April 12, was abruptly cancelled along with Saudi Arabia’s after the United States and Israel attacked Iran on Feb 28.
This sudden change meant that DHL had to reshuffle its operations, ensuring all the freight that would have travelled from Japan to the Middle East would now be delivered to Miami in the United States for the next race in May, and nothing would be missed out in all the ensuing havoc.
Then, in late July, it was announced that the Bahrain GP would be staged at the Sepang circuit in Malaysia, slotted in on the Oct 2 to Oct 4 weekend between the Azerbaijan and Singapore races.
The resulting new triple-header added new complexities to operations for DHL, F1’s official logistics partner since 2004.
Not only did the company now have to redirect the F1 teams’ shipments from Baku to Sepang in two to three days, but it will also have to arrange for the transportation of cargo from Bahrain to Malaysia, and move some of the existing equipment already in Singapore by land.
If any of these shipments do not arrive on time, it could spell disaster for the Singapore GP and subsequent F1 races. Each season involves moving around 1,400 tonnes of race cars, engines, fuel and hospitality materials across five continents for 20 plus races,
F1 is a massively complex global operation that runs like clockwork and requires an exceptional level of logistical planning.
The travelling circus can have as little as a few days of turnaround time before the next GP, and it could very well be in another continent.
This means any kind of logistical disruption, like a race car not arriving on the grid owing to a delayed shipment, could have severe repercussions for a GP.
Thankfully, such instances are extremely rare, said Praveen Gregory, chief executive of DHL Global Forwarding for Singapore, Malaysia and Brunei.
Planning for the global operation begins once the F1 calendar for the new season is announced, typically middle of the year.
Each team has multiple sets of equipment travelling around the world on separate logistical routes to reduce wait times and reduce the risk of disruptions.
Throughout the season, the logistics operation would be leapfrogging the race calendar to ensure that every time the F1 contingent arrives at the next destination, everything is already set up and all the equipment from the race that had ended is now on the way to the following GP.
“It’s not very often that you read in the news about a race that did not happen because the engine or the tyres were not in place. So it is mission-critical – if we don’t deliver, then the race does not happen. And we have to make our supply chain so resilient that we never fail.”
In 2026, however, the Middle East conflict threatened to derail the season before it even began.
The last time a F1 race was cancelled abruptly because of geopolitical tensions was the Russian GP in 2022, following the country’s invasion of Ukraine.
DHL did not comment on the total cost of its F1 logistics, or the cost increase as a result of the last-minute changes in the F1 calendar, though some estimates say each team spends around US$8mil to US$10mil on logistics in a season.
Gregory said the costs are dynamic and dependent on the urgency of teams’ needs and numerous variables, which are constantly changing throughout the season, including changes in shipping routes due to geopolitical developments.
The closure of Middle East airports and the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz have driven up costs, as DHL has had to rely on other airlines that were also raising their rates. With fuel among DHL’s largest expenses, it has seen business costs rise 10% to 20% due to the surge in oil prices.
F1 teams are turning to ocean freight to cut costs, Gregory shared, as transport expenses fall under the sport’s cost cap limiting team spending to help level the playing field. — The Straits Times/ANN
