F1 LOGISTICS: The INSANE Operation Behind Every F1 Race

Over years of working in the paddock and documenting Grand Prix weekends, I’ve seen one truth again and again: the on-track spectacle—drivers, strategy and speed—is just the tip of an immense logistical iceberg. In this article I’ll take you behind the scenes of a single race-to-race move, using the transfer from Spa-Francorchamps to the Hungaroring as a detailed case study to show exactly how teams, suppliers and partners keep Formula 1 running. You’ll read about trucks, planes, ships, customs paperwork, sleeping coaches, engines, fuel and the tiny details that make sure 20 cars are ready to fire up in a new country less than 89 hours after the chequered flag.

Outline: What this article covers

• How the pack-up starts the moment the race finishes
• What goes into the transporters and why teams blend owned and rented trucks
• Pit-lane choreography and the special cases (e.g., Spa track invasions, Monaco constraints)
• Hospitality suites and their separate logistics
• Customs, ATA Carnets and cross-border complications (Brexit effects)
• Engines, fuel and technical handovers
• Air versus sea freight for flyaway races and the staggering costs involved
• How personnel travel: drivers, team principals, crews and caterers
• Costs, suppliers and why DHL and Pirelli are indispensable
• How teams set up at the Hungaroring and the timeline for arrival
• Frequently asked questions

The race finishes, but another operation starts

On Sunday afternoon, as 20 F1 cars set off for a 90‑minute contest in front of roughly 100,000 paying fans and tens of millions watching worldwide, a second, highly choreographed performance was already underway in the paddock. The moment a driver crosses the line, an army of technicians, logistics staff and contractors swing into action to strip down, pack and move the lifeblood of each team to the next destination.

At the Spa to Hungaroring transfer I’m describing, the distance is about 1,250 km (780 miles). All teams had to be up and running in Hungary in less than 89 hours. That’s a tight window for removing engines and gearboxes, draining fluids, packing cars and garage equipment, loading hundreds of tons into trucks and setting off on a 14–16 hour road journey.

Packing the garage: who does what and when

Not every person who works in an F1 garage needs to stay until the very last bolt is packed. As soon as a car is released from Parc Fermé and drivers attend post-race duties, crews split tasks. Some keep working on the cars—removing engines and gearboxes, draining fluids and stripping sensitive components—while other staff load non-essential items into crates and containers that have been waiting in the paddock throughout the weekend.

I’ve stood in pit lane a couple of hours after the race and watched celebration photos being taken while forklifts creak and clank either side of the garage, loading kit into “monster” transporters. The teams pack trucks in a specific order: garage infrastructure first, followed by tools and spare parts, and the cars—carefully prepared and often in pieces—are last to go in.

Why teams don’t own every truck

Transport is expensive. A mid-sized team might own four or five bespoke branded trucks (each worth around $600,000), while Mercedes runs eight. But keeping extra vehicles parked for months while the season leaves Europe is costly and eats into the budget cap. The solution is a hybrid approach: teams own a core fleet and rent additional rigs—commonly provided by logistics partners like DHL—when needed.

Using a mix of owned and rented transporters keeps costs down without compromising reliability. The rental trucks are driven by trained drivers—sometimes representing DHL but operating as part of the team’s logistics chain—to ensure kit arrives on time and in sequence.

Pit‑lane choreography and the special cases

At most races the first truck can move into pit lane within 90 minutes of the chequered flag. But circuits and local quirks change the script. Spa is a great example: during the event there was a track invasion, so trucks had to wait for clearance by an F1 coordinator. At Spa, trucks also enter pit lane in the opposite direction to the cars, so the loading order can differ—McLaren might enter first and another team last. When trucks move, they do so from holding areas scattered around the circuit, along track sections and into the pit complex under tight supervision.

Trucks are positioned on pit straight and receive gear via forklift. Everything looks like organised mayhem: a fleet of forklifts darting around, crates slotted into place and teams waving off full rigs one after another. The fully loaded weight limit for each rig is typically 44 tonnes, and teams aim to have everything on the road within five hours of the race finish.

Driver hour limits and the road trip

Road regulations shape logistics. A completed trip to Hungary usually takes around 14–16 hours. Each transporter requires two drivers; legal limits cap continuous driving stints—typically you can’t drive more than 9–10 hours in a single stint and the combined duty time for the two drivers is restricted to 21 hours before a nine-hour rest is mandatory. For a 15-hour journey, this is manageable unless a major delay occurs en route.

Special circuits: Monaco and other logistical headaches

Monaco is a logistical puzzle. Its paddock is compact with garage gear spread across three levels. Teams often fly in extra crew from factories to help pack down. Trucks cannot park close; many are stationed kilometres away—some even on jetties behind moored cruise ships. Packing in Monaco takes longer and requires advance planning and extra manpower.

Hospitality: a parallel build, a separate move

Hospitality suites are their own operation. These aren’t just tents; some are huge, multi-level structures that host sponsors, guests, media and guests-of-honour. Red Bull’s hospitality is by far the largest I’ve seen—over 1,200 square metres and big enough to house two teams. Building it takes around 25 people about 32 hours to erect and slightly less to pack down.

Aston Martin’s suite can require 20 trucks; McLaren uses about 10. Those crews work through the night on packing and often are the last people to leave the circuit. They’re fed by a small catering team who stick around to support the back-of-garage staff until the suites are ready to roll.

Cross-border paperwork and the ATA Carnet

When the equipment travels within Europe, paperwork is relatively light. But crossing external borders—particularly to and from the UK since Brexit—adds complexity. Drivers must clear customs and present an ATA Carnet: an itemised document listing everything carried in the truck. Customs can inspect loads; on occasions agents ask to see a car listed on a carnet, which is awkward because cars are often disassembled and spread across multiple pallets and positions in the transporter.

DHL and the teams provide customs authorities with advance notice that hundreds of trucks will arrive on a strict schedule, but evolving customs rules mean teams must be more meticulous than ever to avoid delays. One countermeasure teams use is to remove engines for transport to reduce perceived risks and paperwork complications.

Engines, fuel and the technical chain

In 2025 there are four engine manufacturers supplying teams: Mercedes, Ferrari, Honda and Renault. After each race, engines are removed, serviced and placed into quarantine under the manufacturer’s procedures. Many teams do not have independent engine crews; engine manufacturers supply technicians to work on power units at each race. These technicians wear the team’s kit at the track, but they’re employed by the engine suppliers.

Fuel is another specialized logistical element. There are four fuel suppliers across the grid—Petronas, BP, Exxon (from the UK) and Shell (from Germany). Unlike other gear, fuel is not transported with the trucks from event to event. Suppliers ship fuel directly and manage returns of unused stock to refineries post-event. A key reason is customs and taxation: once fuel is permanently imported into one country it can’t typically be consumed in another without complex paperwork and taxes. Also, fuel demand per race is variable, so suppliers prefer to ship fresh allocations to each venue.

Flyaway races: air freight, sea freight and the numbers

When races go overseas, the scale of logistics explodes. Critical items—cars, engines, gearboxes and unique equipment—go by air freight through partners like DHL. Sea freight handles the bulkier, less-critical kit in sets that leapfrog races throughout the year. A single crate can travel thousands of miles and serve multiple events on a season cycle (for example, moving from China to Singapore to Abu Dhabi across several races).

Air freight is fast but extraordinarily expensive. Each team typically moves around 35 tonnes of air freight between flyaway races, and air shipments are expected to be in place—sometimes on the other side of the world—within 36 hours of collection. Estimates put the cost at about $400 per kilogram when you aggregate all the air legs across a season; that comes to roughly $14 million per team per year just for air freight. That’s not a typo—air freight is one of the biggest single logistical cost items a team budgets for.

Why sea freight still matters

Sea freight can be up to 50 times cheaper than air. Teams therefore keep multiple sets of equipment and “leapfrog” them: one set sails while another set flies, and local containers are stored in secure facilities near the destination until needed. Teams often keep a set of gear in-region as backup to guard against shipping delays or customs holds.

Logistics partners: DHL and Pirelli’s role

DHL isn’t just a carrier; it’s integrated into the sport. The company moves vital air and land freight and supplies experienced people who manage complex timelines and customs pre-notification. DHL even has a large motorhome in the paddock—an expensive unit worth around €1,000,000—staffed by a team of roughly 40 people at each event to coordinate operations.

Pirelli, the sole tyre supplier, also runs a large logistics operation. F1 slick tyres are produced in Romania and Turkey. Typically Pirelli brings three trucks for slicks, two for wets/inters and two for spares—about 1,600 tyres on average for every event. They manage their stock and tyre allocation to each team while also supporting tyre fitting and trackside operations.

People movement: drivers, principals and the thousands behind the scenes

Moving people is as important as moving gear. After a race, the first to leave are usually the team principals, drivers and their entourages. They often fly privately from nearby airports (e.g., Liège after Spa) to their homes or onward bases. A couple of drivers own their own planes—Max Verstappen and Fernando Alonso, at the time I’m writing—but most drivers either share charters or use team-arranged private flights for timetabled departures.

Helicopters are common at certain circuits to beat traffic. At Spa, where public roads can become gridlocked, several drivers took helicopters to Liège Airport and saved between 30 and 80 minutes compared to road transfers.

How the rest of the crew travel

Marketing, PR and hospitality staff often head off earlier to catch commercial flights or trains home. Garage crews that did the heavy pack-down are typically finished by around 06:00 the following morning and will either fly or train back for a night or two before rejoining the convoy to the next race. Hospitality tear-down crews often leave last and frequently travel overnight on sleeper coaches for long road legs—this keeps costs down, avoids airport delays and means crews arrive well enough rested to begin build operations straight away.

Arrival and rebuild at the Hungaroring

Advance teams for the Hungaroring arrive a week earlier to set up non-essential equipment. These advance crews often pack up before the race weekend at their home base for a scheduled break, then return a few days later to begin venue build. For the Spa-to-Budapest move, the first trucks rolled in and had all of Mercedes’s race base engineering and garage equipment packed up in Spa on Monday morning and fully erected by 07:30 on Tuesday—ahead of schedule partly thanks to a new, wider paddock at the Hungaroring.

When teams arrive, they hit the ground running: showers at the hotel, a quick refuel of energy and immediate work on the hospitality and garage build. Marketing, catering and media operations are typically in place by Wednesday in preparation for Thursday Media Day.

Accommodation and travel planners

Every team has a travel coordinator or department that books 60 to 120 rooms for race personnel in each location. In major cities with abundant hotel stock—Singapore, Las Vegas, Melbourne, Doha, Bahrain—this is relatively straightforward. At small towns near circuits like Spa, Suzuka or Spielberg, sourcing sufficient rooms close to the track is more challenging and sometimes rental homes or hotels located further away are used.

Travel planners also organise a fleet of cars and minivans to ferry staff between hotel and paddock. Coordinating shift schedules, dining and laundry for hundreds of people is an often-overlooked logistical task that runs 24/7 for the duration of the race weekend.

Cost perspective: why logistics matter to competitiveness

Logistics represent a significant portion of a team’s annual budget. The $14 million-per-team figure for air freight alone illustrates how much investment goes into keeping the race calendar moving. Add truck fleets, hospitality suites, staffing travel and accommodation, and the combined operational spend is enormous. That is one reason why teams opt for efficiencies—owning fewer trucks, using sea freight for non-critical kit, or centralising spare sets around the globe to mitigate risk.

Beyond pure dollars, logistics affect performance. If a key spare part arrives late or a container is held at customs, the team may be forced to use suboptimal components or make unplanned repairs. Reliability in logistics therefore becomes an invisible competitive advantage.

Small details that make a big difference

There are dozens of small details that recur every weekend and that most fans never see. Crewmembers’ bicycles are often loaded into trucks; many mechanics ride to and from the track for exercise and to reduce transfer costs. Teams maintain local caches of equipment around the world. Containers are stored securely near the destination around eight days before a race to ensure there’s margin for the final mile delivery. Sleeper coaches allow tired staff to travel overnight and start work immediately on arrival. All these measures reduce risk and keep timelines tight.

Conclusion: the show must go on

Behind every Grand Prix there’s a vast, often invisible logistical machine. From the moment the chequered flag drops, a coordinated movement of hundreds of tonnes of equipment and thousands of people takes place across borders and time zones. Trucks that roll out five hours after the finish, laws that govern driver hours, expensive air freight that ensures flyaway races happen on time, and the tire trucks that keep competition running—each piece of the puzzle is essential.

Understanding these operations gives you an appreciation for how much discipline and planning goes into delivering a world-class sporting spectacle every weekend. When things go wrong, teams and logistics partners must pivot quickly. When things go right, it’s a testament to months of planning, thousands of checklists and people prepared to work through the night to make sure the cars are ready to race again in another country within days.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long does it take to pack up a Formula 1 garage after a race?

Packing up non-essential items usually begins as soon as the race is underway. For most European transfers, teams aim to have trucks loaded and on the road within five hours of the chequered flag. Full dismantle, including hospitality, typically continues through the night and into the following morning, with final departures often occurring by around 06:00 the day after the race.

Do teams own all their transport trucks?

No. Teams typically own a core number of branded race trucks—anywhere from a few to eight for the larger operations—and rent additional transporters via partners like DHL to reduce costs and manage the idle fleet issue outside the European leg of the season. The cost cap also encourages a hybrid approach.

How do teams transport cars and engines for flyaway races?

Critical items—cars, engines and gearboxes—are usually sent by air freight to meet the short timelines required at flyaway events. Less time-sensitive equipment goes by sea freight in rotating sets that leapfrog events. Teams also often keep regional caches of equipment to mitigate shipping delays.

What paperwork is required when crossing borders?

Within the EU, paperwork is generally minimal. When crossing external borders—most notably to and from the UK since it left the EU—teams must clear customs and present an ATA Carnet, which lists all items on the truck. Customs authorities can inspect loads, which occasionally causes delays.

Who pays for drivers’ private flights?

That depends on individual contracts. Some drivers negotiate an annual flight allowance, others have specific races covered on private charters while using commercial flights for the rest. Teams may also charter group flights for crew to save on accommodation costs and reduce travel time.

How expensive is F1 logistics?

Very. Air freight alone is estimated at around $14 million per team for the season if you add together all air legs and cargo. Teams also spend heavily on trucks, hospitality, accommodation and personnel movement, meaning logistics are a major cost center and a focus of efficiency drives.

Why isn’t fuel transported from race to race?

Fuel suppliers ship fuel directly to venues rather than teams moving fuel with them. Reasons include variable fuel consumption per event, tax and import rules that complicate moving fuel between countries, and logistics convenience for refineries and suppliers.

How many tyres does Pirelli bring to each race?

Pirelli typically brings around 1,600 tyres per event, spread across multiple trucks: three for slicks, two for wet/inters and two for spares. Tyre logistics are critical to race operations and require precise inventory management.

Do teams ever get caught out by customs or shipping delays?

Yes, occasionally. That’s why teams keep contingency plans: spare equipment cached in different regions, multiple shipping methods and experienced logistics partners who pre-notify customs and ensure documentation like ATA Carnets are perfect. Even so, last-minute inspections or paperwork mismatches can cause stress and force quick fixes.

How does the operation differ at unique circuits like Monaco?

Monaco’s tiny paddock and multiple-level garage layouts require additional workforce and time. Trucks are often parked much further away, and parts must be ferried from remote lots. Teams coordinate extra staff flown in from factories to manage the complex pack-up and rebuild schedule.

Final thoughts

Logistics in Formula 1 is an art as much as a science. It requires orchestration of countless moving parts—human, mechanical and regulatory—under unforgiving deadlines. From the first bolt being undone after a race to the last hospitality crate being stacked in the next paddock, the efficiency and resilience of this machine are remarkable. When you watch the cars race on Sunday, spare a thought for the hundreds of people and millions of dollars in planning that make it possible.