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IT’S RACE DAY AT ALBERT PARK!
Well the big day has arrived, it’s race day here in Melbourne for the Formula 1 Rolex Australian Grand Prix. It’s been a big three days already and
it’s sure to be capped off with an incredible finish, 58 laps around the 5.3 kilometre Albert Park circuit. There are many possible winners
throughout the field, but the feeling of encouragement for Aussie Daniel Ricciardo continues to be echoed around the track.
The warmest weather of the weekend was experienced yesterday, though it was perfect conditions for the final practice session and qualifying for
Formula 1. The V8 Supercars continued to turn on a terrific performance, the Porsches were close and everyone has got to enjoy the diversity of
the Heritage Touring Cars which are well and truly a step back in time in Australian motor racing.
Be sure to keep an eye out at tonight’s official BBQ for the PM edition which will be a reflection of a huge four days here at the 2015 Formula 1
Rolex Australian Grand Prix.
Check out www.cams.com.au for all the editions of the Official’s Gazette.
Yours in Motorsport,
Liam Meegan
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Saturday 14 March 2015 – Formula 1 Rolex Australian Grand Prix
BEHIND THE SCENES
BRUCE KEYS
Bruce Keys is wearing two hats for one job this weekend. His 'day' job is CAMS
Manager of Track Safety, and his AGP role is heading up the National Track
Inspection Team, which has two other members, Stephen Preece and Graeme
Williams. Bruce has worked all 31 AGP's, and the other two have done 30. The
team's task is to insure the racetrack is built to the specifications agreed upon by
CAMS and AGPC. Those specs are then sent to APP Engineering, the company,
which provides infrastructure overlay. After that approval, on to FIA for approval.
And then back to APP, as Project Manager, for building.
The team has two heavy-weight manuals - a 75-page blueprint-sized Rolex AGP
Track Infrastructure Manual and an incredibly detailed Check List.
This year there are two small changes to the circuit. At the exit of Turn Two the
concrete taper was extended 20 meters, in hopes of eliminating the V8's using that
line and creating a rut. That was just a new challenge to the V8 drivers, so the
problem was eased, but not eliminated. The barrier at Turn Three was pushed back
to provide better viewing for the fans. This was only suggested after extensive risk
assessment concerning drivers, officials and fans.
Once the Grand Prix is over, there is a two-week rest, and then an extensive debrief
to plan for the next year, discussing the physical plant, track conditions, and
infrastructure From this a list is developed to work on for the next nine months. The
time frame for submitting structural changes to FIA starts three months ahead of
the GP.
Bruce starts his CAMS work with AGPC and APP three months out. The weekend
prior to the GP, the team starts looking at the circuit in close detail, matching the
drawings and completing an extensive checklist. The team has motorsports experts
for consultation.
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BEHIND THE SCENES
JEAN BELLENGER
Jean Bellenger of Melbourne has worked in AGP
Race Administration since 2001. Among her
many tasks is Assistant Secretary of the
Meeting. Her work week starts on Tuesday,
putting together and distributing the allimportant packets of information for Race
Control, Sector Marshals, Seniors, and Course
Marshals. She interfaces with most of the 22
teams of AGP Race Officials and marshals. Jean
sometimes sees herself as a Fireman, putting
out fires as needed.
She is the behind-the-scenes Go-To Person,
controlling the chaos that comes with
administrative duties, helped by knowing the
hierarchy and the system. Jean's retired from
her administrative position with a large multinational corporation, and put those skills and
experience to work with her AGP duties.
Last weekend Jean was, for the first time,
Secretary of the Meeting for the Phillip Island
Classic Festival of Motor Sports, a huge race
meeting with more than 500 historic cars from
Australia and overseas. It was a very rewarding
experience; she learned a lot, and wants to do it
again.
Saturday 14 March 2015 – Formula 1 Rolex Australian Grand Prix
MARKING A MILESTONE
31 YEARS OF SERVICE TO THE AUSTRALIAN
GRAND PRIX
Terry Bebe
Rae Begg
Raymond Begg
Angus Black
Geoff Bull
Terry Buxton
Chris Byrnes
Rhys Carleton-Carlos
Roger Chirnside
Vincent Ciccarello
Ewan Cole
Bryce Crawford
Bill Crouch
Henk Duncan
Don DeGiglio
Malcolm Finlayson
Barry Frost
Raelene Frost
Peter Green
Daryl Karlsson
Bruce Keys
Kevin Kidsley
Alan Krahe
Catherine Macdonald
Paul Martin
Mario Napoleone
Peter Nelson
Paul Overell
Greg Piggott
Warren Reid
Peter Rosier
Geoff Rothberg
Tim Schenken
Lawrie Schmitt
Ken Smith
Robert Styling
Tony Thorne
David Turnbull
Tony Van den Dungen
This year, three of the thirty-year veterans have
retired:
Alan O'Dea - Chief Marshal
David Kidd - National Reports
Erik Rubens - Starter
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Saturday 14 March 2015 – Formula 1 Rolex Australian Grand Prix
FEATURE STORY: CHATTING WITH CHARLIE – THE FINAL INSTALLMENT
Charlie remembers fondly 'Starting' his first race in Melbourne in 1996. In fact he started it twice, thanks to Mr. Brundle.
Gazette: What elements help the marshals identify the drivers and cars?
Charlie: The team's camera mounts are required to be of different colours. The team's determines which driver has the black camera and which
has the one with colour. The black one is the teams first car, not the number one driver. For example, Mercedes doesn't have a number one
and number two driver in the classic sense. The order in which they're listed on this year's Melbourne Entry List is numerical. Under the old way,
before drivers had their own numbers, they would be one and two. So the first car would have a black camera, which is how they come from the
factory. FOM provides the cameras as black. The second car camera mount is fluorescent yellow with decals on it basically, provided by FOM
designed to fit exactly in the right places. On the Entry Form, the teams have to indicate which is the first car and which is the second car. It's
not necessarily based on what is the car number, as they might not know what the car number will be. They may not know who the driver will
be. They're not always arranged numerically. Lewis (Hamilton) is 44 and Nico (Rosberg) is 6. In the old way, it would have been the other way
around. Lewis is the first driver, the number one driver; Lewis now has an entitlement to the number 44 for the rest of his career in Formula
One. As World Champion, if he chooses, he can choose to keep 44 or run the number One. He chose 44.
My experience here is that the corner workers can identify a Red Bull from a Toro Rosso or Ferrari. So they call it in as “Toro Rosso Yellow
Camera.” They don't make any attempt to identify the car by its number. So, in my experience, if I see a Red Bull car go off the track, the first
thing I look for is the camera colour because it's the easiest thing to see.
Gazette: Are there penalties for changing helmet livery during season? Reportedly, Sebastian Vettel has been quoted as saying if it's just a fine;
he's going to do it.
Charlie: Yes. Regarding penalties, unless it's specifically written in the rules, any driver whose car leads to unsafe conditions will get a tensecond penalty. Unless it's written in the rules, penalties like that are set by precedent. So, the first time it happens, the Stewards will look at
the case and they will say “Mr. Vettel, why is your helmet this way the first day in Melbourne and here's the colour in Malaysia?. How do you
explain that this one is red and that one is pink?. Is it substantially the same livery? No, I changed it.' Then we'd have to see what the Stewards
felt was an appropriate penalty. And that would normally set a precedent. Like in any normal court of law, you don't know exactly what you're
going to get. I wouldn't like to speculate.”
Gazette: Does FIA have a standard procedure for handling concussions? Do they do baseline testing?
Charlie: Yes, and Yes. FIA was one of the first series to do baseline testing - at least ten years ago.
Gazette: How does FIA feel about levity on the corners during Stewards Inspection.
Charlie: Levity is definitely not frowned upon. I wouldn't say we encourage it. But at circuits where the marshals like to express themselves, we
love it. Some circuits go to extraordinary lengths to find ways. Japan comes to mind. They are remarkable for what they do there. And a lot of
marshals do it off on their own bat. I don't think it's a coordinated thing. You drive around one circuit and you see marshals just normally
standing there and we all wave at them and they wave back, and that's the norm. And yet on the same lap you'll see some marshals wearing
silly hats, red wigs or something like that on one particular post. And I say it always brightens up our day. And we don't go out of our way to
encourage such things - not sure that's what we should be doing. But it's nice to see that marshals are enjoying themselves, because I think it's
an important thing for them to feel part of the whole family and this wonderful event and we're all working together to achieve exactly the same
thing.
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Saturday 14 March 2015 – Formula 1 Rolex Australian Grand Prix
FEATURE STORY: CHATTING WITH CHARLIE – THE FINAL INSTALLMENT, CONTINUED
Gazette: Tells us more about the new Virtual Safety Car procedure. Who came up with the idea, and how does it work?
Charlie: I came up with the idea of the Virtual Safety Car, which was first beta tested at the USGP at Circuit of the Americas last October, and
then again in Brazil. Since then it has been refined a bit and adopted by FIA for Formula One.
In January this year, Charlie met with a large number of Race Directors from all over the world in order to follow through with all the findings
of the investigation panel, to make sure that this wasn't seen as something just basic to Formula One, because, of course, when there are
changes to the FIA Sporting Codes it can affect all categories. So FIA wanted to try to see how the same things, in similar events, can make
sure the drivers slow down when there are workers out there.
We did the Virtual Safety Car in Formula One because we are very fortunate to have all the infrastructure that is required to do it. When it's
determined for the need of a Virtual Safety Car, I just push a button and the drivers are instantly informed by a display in their cars, and the
Light Boards on the corners show VSC. Very few series have that. And the reason for having this meeting was to see how we could go about
doing things in other series to achieve the same results as we got in Formula One. Full course yellows aren't new by any means, but they've
been used, historically, an awful lot. In fact, it was used last year in WEC with (FCY) and such. So it's doing an American thing in a European
way, if you excuse that expression. And then, there are other methods of doing it, one of which we are going to use in GP2 and GP3 this
year. And that's what we termed a 'Speed Light’, which actually was an idea of a German DTM Race Director.
The basic idea is that the cars are fitted with a light, which is visible to Race Control, by cameras, and to Marshals. And if a full course yellow
or a speed limit is imposed around the track - as it will be in GP2 - we'll essentially have the VSC, but the VSC in GP2 will be a speed limit.
Ours in F1 is a Speed Profile and drivers have to follow a Speed Profile. It's more in keeping with Formula One. In having an overall speed
limit is what's going to be done in GP2 and GP3, enforced by the Speed Light, and it's very, very simple. The light's on top of the camera or
something like that, where everyone can see it. It's very bright. It will only come on if the car speed limit drops below the speed limit, and the
driver presses the button in the car to say 'I've slowed down to below the speed limit’. If he presses the button and he hasn't slowed down, it
won't come on, and if he slows down but doesn't press the button, it won't come on. It will only come on if he has gone below the speed
limit and presses the button. Once the light comes on, all the Marshals have to do is check to see that every car's light is on. Any car whose
light is not on will be reported to the Stewards. It's very straight forward, and I think's a really good idea.
I imagine it would be quite widely embraced, as it's a neat solution. Cheap - a super solution.
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Saturday 14 March 2015 – Formula 1 Rolex Australian Grand Prix
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Saturday 14 March 2015 – Formula 1 Rolex Australian Grand Prix
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Saturday 14 March 2015 – Formula 1 Rolex Australian Grand Prix
NEWS TIPS…
Have you got an exciting
story that we don’t know
about yet?
Maybe you’re celebrating
a milestone with us at the
Formula 1 Rolex
Australian Grand Prix?
Make sure you drop us a
line or come and see us at
the Muster Tent each
morning and we will be
sure to do our best to
include your story in the
Officials Newsletter.
The best way to get in
contact is via email at
liam@directmanagementg
roup.com.au or give us a
ring or text message,
0432 880 088.
When you contact us, be
sure to include your
officials team and location
around the track so we
can grab some photos and
an interview.
RACE GUIDE:
SUNDAY
10:50AM – Shannons
Historic Parade
11:15AM – Penrite Oils
Heritage
Touring Cars –
Race 3
11:40AM – Ferrari Road
Car Parade
12:05PM – MSS Security
V8 Supercars – Race 4
12:55PM – Porsche
Carrera Cup – Race 3
– Ultimate Speed
2PM
Comparison – Demo 4
2:30PM – Formula 1
Drivers Parade
4: 00PM – 2015
Fo rm ula 1 Ro lex
stralian Gr and Prix
Au
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Saturday 14 March 2015 – Formula 1 Rolex Australian Grand Prix