Question: What are the logistical challenges of Monaco?
Richard Cregan: The problem that comes up every year is the traffic and the basic nature of Monaco. Space is at a real premium so we have to make compromises, such as having a truck of spares down in the paddock with the motorhome, quite some distance from the cars. Normally all the equipment is either within the garage or immediately next to it so logistically this means Monaco is more of a challenge to get the right parts to the right place on time. No matter how much effort the organisers make, inevitably it’s still difficult, but that’s part of what makes it special.
Question: Are the difficulties made more obvious by some of Formula One racing’s new venues?
Richard Cregan: Yes. When you come to a new paddock, like Istanbul, everything is laid on and it’s fantastic but that can never be the case in Monaco. You still enjoy the challenge of going to Monaco. When it’s all set up it is unique and that’s one of the nice things about working in Formula One. I hope we never lose it.
Question: Has the situation improved over the years?
Richard Cregan: Organisationally, the biggest improvement in recent years has been the new garages and pit lane; that’s made a huge difference because now it is manageable. In the past we prepared the cars in the parking area under the palace and basically that was like a rally service park with equipment all around! The solution we have now is as good as you can realistically get considering all the limitations. This year, a big change for us is that there is no spare car so effectively we will have more space. A few years ago we used to have two T-cars in the garage, so we’ve gone from four cars to two.
Question: How do you cope with having personnel in two locations - in the garage and in the paddock?
Richard Cregan: It’s quite a distance between the two areas and it’s not always possible to move freely between them because access to the garages is limited when cars are on track. One of the issues we always have is when everyone arrives there’s a huge load on the local mobile phone network and it doesn’t always work perfectly so you have to set up your own radio communication. You have an extra man for IT because you need to deal with the radio system being expanded. In addition, you’ve always got one or two guys down in the paddock area because that’s basically where all the parts are, so if you need something they bring it up and down. You need extra people if you want it to work properly.
Question: Overall, is it more a pleasure than a logistical nightmare?
Richard Cregan: I love the place. I like to take the best out of every Grand Prix rather than looking at negatives. In years to come we’ll look back and think, we had the opportunity to race in Monaco and we were getting paid to enjoy motorsport there. What more can you ask for!
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