F1 uncovered: A race weekend behind-the-scenes with a team manager

A Formula 1 team at a grand prix is like a travelling orchestra – except the musicians aren’t all sitting in one place during the performance and the ‘concert’ lasts for more than a week, from the arrival of the first staff to the departure of the last pieces of equipment.

Every element of an F1 team’s on-track operation is structured. Each of the nearly 100 team members has a clear understanding of their role, in some cases – such as during a pitstop – down to every step, every second.

The team manager’s job is a like a conductor’s – and at Haas it’s Peter Crolla’s job to schedule the many meetings over a race weekend and ensure those 100-odd people work as a united whole. His responsibilities also include overseeing the team’s logistics and representing the team on various committees. It’s also the team manager’s remit
to be a point of contact for F1 race organisers.

Crolla also acts as its sporting director (a common practice), ensuring the team adheres to regulations during all sessions. It’s Crolla who deals with the FIA when the team’s drivers are involved in accidents – and he who accompanies Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg to the stewards’ office when they’re summoned.

He’s in charge of the team’s mechanics and heads up Haas’s pitstop group, constantly trying to improve the team’s performance in this area. Here’s what a typical race weekend looks like...

It's an early start on Thursday morning for Crolla and the Haas team

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THURSDAY

06.30
Arrival at the track
“Thursday is all about making sure we’re ready for the weekend. Normally I’d meet with our chief mechanic, race team coordinator and chief garage technician in the morning to see where we are in terms of car build and garage set-up. The guys had made a good start on Wednesday with the car prep, as well as making sure we’d got the spare chassis in a good condition, which is particularly important going into a sprint weekend.”

10.00
Marketing team catch-up
“A quick meeting, mainly about what we’ve got in terms of partners and guests for the weekend.”

12.00
Security briefing
“An online meeting, organised by the circuit with the FIA, FOM, all the teams in attendance, to update us on any security matters. Some details might vary – we’ve got some races where the security threat might be quite high, there could also be visiting dignitaries. But here it’s
all quite standard.”

12.30
Catching up with the team principal
“A 15-minute chat with Ayao Komatsu, this time mainly about some regulatory updates from the Sporting Advisory Committee.
I represent the team at these meetings and it’s always important to confirm our position internally on key points before he attends the upcoming F1 Commission meeting.”

13.00
Track walk
“I do it mainly to look at any changes since the last time we were here, to remind myself where the Safety Car lines are, all the basics – so when there’s a question, I can give a clear answer straight away.”

15.00
FIA track test
“On Thursdays, the FIA do their systems check with Safety and Medical Cars on track. It’s a good time for us to join in and check
all our intercom systems, data
and telemetry.”

16.00
Pitstop practice 1
“We try to do four practices over the weekend. The one on Thursday is usually about more complex scenarios: double stops, nose changes and other eventualities. We’ve done 10 stops, all with the guys running out of the garage, including a couple to see how prepared we were for a late call.

Practice makes perfect as the Haas team perform a number of pitstop simulations ahead of the race

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“Kevin’s stop in Japan wasn’t ideal. It was called later than we would normally have as a cut-off time and the guys responded well.
It wasn’t a disaster. Equally we looked at what wasn’t perfect and tried to implement some changes.

“We have a pitstop group – me, our chief mechanic, the physio and the strategy engineer – and we have a meeting every week to see how we can improve. Everything in the garage is positioned in a certain way. We have to think about the role of each of our crew members, because that affects where they sit, their route to the position and the timing from the garage to the pitlane – and that’s planned in great detail.

“We’ve been working on our timing, our positioning and also making sure there aren’t too many obstacles when they leave the garage – be it chairs, tyres or other humans. The guys have been very receptive and the practice went smoothly.”

FRIDAY

08.30
Team managers’ meeting
“This is an in-person meeting in the press conference room between all team managers, the FIA and F1. It’s usually split into three parts: we start with the previous event, then the current one and then there’s a section for ‘any other business’. Sometimes it’s really small things. Here, for example, they gave us instructions on what to do if a driver stops between Turns 13 and 14 – they wanted it parked on the left because it’s easier to recover.”

10.00
Pitstop practice 2
“Nine practice stops. Some scenarios, like nose changes and air bottle refills, and some normal stops. The crew never know what’s coming next and only find out when they get my call from the pitwall – just to keep them on their toes!”

10.30
Free practice 1 programme meeting
“This is an engineer-led meeting we have before every session. I attend just to be aware of what the run plan is, and if there’s anything to discuss from a sporting or operational perspective.”

Crolla attends engineering meetings to keep abreast of any significant developments

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11.30
Free practice 1
“I’m on the pitwall for all sessions. My main responsibility is to ensure safety and compliance with all sporting regulations, and to guarantee our competitors don’t get an unfair advantage on us. I liaise with race control via a dedicated intercom channel if issues arise. It was a pretty smooth FP1 and I think the only time I had to communicate with the FIA was when Nico reported the fire on the side of the track at Turn 7. I contacted the FIA sporting director Tim Malyon to make them aware. It’s something I’ve never seen before.”

12.45
Free practice 1 driver debrief
“Both engineering teams go through what they did during the session and the drivers give their feedback. For me it’s mostly just listening, but if I have any points to add from the session, I’ll communicate them.”

13.30
First drivers’ meeting
“This is the regular meeting between the drivers and the race director. There are two meetings scheduled: the first one is online, just after FP1, to go over matters relating to the current event.

“The in-person meeting in the press conference room is usually on Friday evening. If there’s anything people want to discuss from previous events, they have to inform the race director. Nobody did this time – drivers are always happy to miss a briefing – so the second meeting was cancelled.”

14:30
Sprint qualifying meeting

15.30
Sprint qualifying
“I think it went well. We exceeded our expectations a little bit with P12 and P13, which is good. There were no major incidents either. Kevin felt he was impeded by Lando Norris but the FIA looked at it and decided there was nothing to it. Carlos Sainz also felt he was blocked by our car and made a comment, but it didn’t go any further.”

16.30
Sprint qualifying: Drivers’ meeting

17.45
2nd sprint qualifying drivers meeting: Cancelled
“With the drivers’ meeting cancelled and the cars in the parc fermé, we were done for the day at around 6.30pm.”

Magnussen relays that he felt he was impeded in qualifying

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SATURDAY: SPRINT RACE

09.00
Pre-race briefing
“Here we talk about all the variables we anticipate for the sprint. It’s not a race with planned tyre changes but we treat it the same way in terms of the grid procedure and
the crew being ready for a pitstop.

“Again, it’s an engineer-led meeting where they go through what they’re expecting from their respective cars. And then the strategy engineer will give us an overview of any potential variables.”

10.30
Pitlane open: Sprint
“Before the race, I issue some notes – just giving the guys instructions on where to access the grid, reminding them of accreditation requirements, any operational procedures such as where the grid trolleys are stored when we come back, and making sure everyone’s ready for any pitstops, even if it’s a sprint. I email it, but I also read it to the team before we go to the grid.

“I get on the pitwall 20 minutes before the cars go to the grid and read these notes out on our race channel. Most things are similar for most races: we tell people where the gates are for the grid, remind everyone what our grid positions are, which garage we’re going to use if we have to retire a car – all relatively low-level stuff, but important.

“All these things have to be planned in advance. Because if you have a situation in the race, you need to apply it immediately.”

11.00
Sprint
“About 10 minutes before the formation lap, we discovered a problem with Nico’s car that looked like it required a steering wheel change. It was resolved, the guys did a really good job, everyone stayed calm and pragmatic. But we had to talk to the FIA because we were getting close to the time when we had to clear the grid – it’s potentially an unnecessary interruption to the start procedure. But it was all fine in the end.

“I always do the countdown to the start of the formation lap, which is essential at moments like this. Everyone has a watch, but not everyone has time to look at it, and I gently remind them of the important points: the guys know, for example, that only eight people per car are allowed on the grid at the three-minute mark.

“The race itself was quite procedural. No stops, no damage. Kevin was P10, Nico P19.”

12.15
Sprint: Driver’ meeting

Crolla calls the China sprint "quite procedural"

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14.00
Qualifying programme meeting

15.00
Qualifying
“No big drama. Sainz’s crash brought out the red flag, but it didn’t really affect us. Kev was a bit unlucky and ended up in P17, but Nico went through to Q3, which was also a bit unexpected after a difficult sprint.”

16.15
Qualifying: Drivers’ meeting

17.30
Pitstop practice 3: Cancelled
“We schedule a pitstop practice on Saturday evening but often there isn’t enough time, which was the case this Saturday.”

SUNDAY: GRAND PRIX

10.15
Miami-Imola planning meeting
“A quick 15-minute chat between me, the chief mechanic, the chief garage technician and the race team coordinator about our plans for the time in the factory after Miami and before Imola – mainly discussing logistics.”

11.30
Strategy meeting
“Led by the strategy engineer talking about our plans and predictions for the race, and how we’re going to run it in terms of pitstop calls.”

12.30
Pre-race briefing

12.30-13.30
Pitstop practice 4
“Final pitstop practice – two hours before the race, just to get everyone’s mind and body right. We did seven stops, all pretty straightforward, just replicating what most of our race stops can be: push the car in, change the tyres, adjust the front wing.”

14.20
Pitlane open – race
“Again, I’d be on the pitwall about 20 minutes before pitlane opens – and our preparation is very similar to the sprint, with one of the biggest differences being that we’ve got a longer time the pitlane is open, so we usually do two or three reconnaissance laps to the grid.”

Pre-race procedure is for Magnussen and Hulkenberg to do two or three reconnaissance laps to the grid

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15.00
Race
“Quite an eventful race – and in the end we managed to score a point with Nico for P10, which was great. A little disappointing for Kevin: he was involved in an incident with Yuki Tsunoda, got a puncture and then a 10-second penalty which we can’t fight.

“There were a couple of other incidents that required us to communicate with the FIA. We made a stop under the Safety Car for Nico, knowing he’d be very close to Logan Sargeant at the pit exit.

"Our car crossed the Safety Car line just a few milliseconds earlier. We monitored that closely and since Logan stayed in front, we flagged it to race control, which resulted in a penalty for Williams. We had a similar penalty in Canada a couple of years ago, so since then we’ve been paying more attention to those kinds of things.

"It’s a shame for Logan because it was impossible for him to judge from the car – and his team didn’t spot it either. I was hoping he’d just be asked to give the place back, but that’s part of a wider discussion at the moment.”

17.00
Drivers’ debrief

18.00
Stewards’ hearing
“We were summoned for the incident involving Daniel Ricciardo. Nico overtook him and Lance Stroll when they crashed before the restart, which he was entitled to do since they’d ‘slowed with an obvious problem’. Then we had another Safety Car right after and Ricciardo overtook Nico thinking he could regain his position.

“These meetings are usually very civilised. It was me, Nico and Marco Perrone from RB with Daniel. Our P10 was never in jeopardy.”

22.30
Leaving the track
“Packing starts before the race is over – and after a few hours nearly every member of the team is involved. Airfreight was ready by 10.”

Hulkenberg came away with P10 and a point in China

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