Secret mechanic: The moment of truth

There's a saying in motorsport: 'When the flag drops, the bullshit stops'. And we're getting very close to that point in Formula 1 right now.

Over the past few weeks we've seen the press releases and comments from teams and drivers, either from the likes of Mercedes playing down its chances despite emerging as clear favourite, or from Red Bull and co, trying to minimise the severity of their own dire situations.

As a team member, I've been there and despite what is said officially, you know in your own mind exactly where you stand.

On Sunday, there's no more talking. We will all get to see the fruits of each team's hard labour... uncensored.

Hard labour it certainly has been this year, I can assure you. I've spoken previously about the incredibly tough schedules for mechanics and engineers inside each team at this time of year, but chatting last week to former colleagues, this pre-season has taken even more of a toll.

Of course I always take these comments with a pinch of sodium chloride, as back in the good old days on the test team we did 10 times as much testing as now, with two cars... and there was certainly no such thing as a night shift!

Seriously, though, the radical changes to the technical side of the sport for 2014 have created - and will continue to create for some time - a lot of work for all involved.

Normally each new car is, to some extent, a derivative of the previous one and at the very least it is based around the same, or very similar, technologies that everyone has been used to working with.

The time it takes to repair the cars is a concern for all teams © XPB

This year, with so much new hardware, software and systems to not only invent, but to integrate, optimise and then 'prove out' on each car, it meant lots of downtime in the garage at each test.

Generally, when people employ the word 'downtime' in the sense I've just used it, it frustrates the hell out of mechanics. There's no such thing as downtime at a test for them - if the car's in the garage, it's being frantically worked on.

It has the same irritating effect as when people talk about the scheduled break in track running around the middle of a test day, often referred to by those who aren't mechanics as the 'lunchbreak'.

Since the final test in Bahrain, teams have spent a lot of time at their factories. There will have been a lot of late-night pizza deliveries as the guys desperately tried to overcome problems or make new design solutions fit the car ahead of packing things up to go to Oz.

Mechanics might have got a day - possibly two for some of them - at home, once the cars and freight left for the airport last week, ahead of their own flights at the weekend. That single day is a rare moment at this stage of the season where mechanics have no cars, tools or equipment to work on, so are able to use it to be with family or friends before heading off again.

I always seemed to need that day to do things like get my hair cut, do jobs around the house that had been neglected for months, tie up any loose ends, buy toiletries etc and pack my bag. With a bit of luck there might be room for a goodbye dinner with the one you love and then you are airport-bound once more.

As I said, the teams all know by now roughly where they stand in the pecking order. This year, however, it could be said there are two 'pecking orders'. One relates, as normal, to performance on track, the other to reliability and the likelihood of even getting to the end of the first grand prix.

Everybody is worried about reliability © LAT

I've spoken to quite a few of my old mates up and down the pitlane and the reality is that no one's really confident they're going to make it to the chequered flag - not even Mercedes.

In days gone by, we'd have covered four times the mileage on a new car that teams have been able to do this year, and even then we'd be pretty nervous heading into race one.

Not one team has done anywhere near enough running to prove their new kit will last through an entire race weekend in different conditions, let alone be able to race within the new fuel limits if they do happen to get to the end.

For the teams, the late nights won't stop coming for a while. F1 has increased the amount of occasions personnel can break the curfew from two to six and I imagine many will use a few up this weekend.

For most, the cars being prepared in Australia will differ somewhat from the ones used last time out in Bahrain, as the teams all try to improve as many areas as they can before the race. That means more work, more teething troubles, and more grumpy, tired mechanics.

When the race gets underway on Sunday, expect to see a few 'nodding' heads in the rows of pitstop crew in each garage, as the guys finally get to sit down for an hour or so... hopefully.