Had the season started as planned in Qatar, across all 22 races of the season, MotoGP teams would have covered a total of 163 kilometers to cover their travels, which is equivalent to approximately four times the circumference of the earth. With most teams located in Europe, the most expensive trips in terms of logistics and human movement are overseas, to reach countries like Argentina, Japan or Australia.
During these exotic trips, due to the distance of the circuits from Europe, the MotoGP World Championship paddock – which has some 3000 people – must organize, with the help of a company specializing in logistics , shipping all materials. When a race ends, each team rushes to put the motorcycles in specific containers and dismantle the box and hospitality in record time. Trucks must be loaded towards the airport. For the teams, there is no time to lose, just like on the track! When GP weekends follow one another, as is likely to happen at the end of the year, they only have 36 hours for all the equipment to travel from one circuit to another.
Motorcycles are transported in specific flight cases
Four Boeing 747 cargo planes carry more than 380 tonnes of goods between each Grand Prix, distributed in 150 containers. All the equipment is distributed in specially designed crates. Each crate meets the exact needs of its contents in terms of dimensions and safety. As a general rule, we can say that the larger the team, the higher the number of flight cases; factory MotoGP teams being able to use up to 50 and a two-rider Moto3 team requiring no more than 3.
This represents a total of around 600 crates for the MotoGP teams, to be added to 200 or 300 others for Dorna. During overseas GPs, 30 of these boxes travel by plane and 15 by boat. In the 30 sent by plane are all the essential elements for the next race, in particular the 4 motorcycles, the main tools, computers, panels, televisions, etc... But also the most dangerous products such as oils, lubricants, etc.
Even the Safety Car travels by plane, among all these parts!
Not everything travels by plane…
Each MotoGP team has the right to airfreight 9.5 tonnes paid for by Dorna. If the weight limit is exceeded, the extra kilos are prohibitively expensive, which is why some containers travel by ship. Even if it takes longer, with flawless organization, this saves a third of the budget that would be spent if everything traveled by plane!
By sea, several 40-foot (approximately 12 meters) containers are sent. Inside, we find around 4,5 tonnes of material to build hospitality (tables, chairs, kitchen equipment, etc.). The other half of the container is made up of other non-technical items used to construct the box: cables, panels, additional tools and other goods.
A hell of a logistical challenge awaits the teams each race weekend
At some excessively well-laid out circuits, such as Sepang, the permanent circuit structures are directly decorated with the team signs. In other places like Australia, Argentina, Texas, etc. instead of having a simple tent, the teams prefer to have their own hospitality.
All these boxes are transported by truck between airports and circuits (or only by road, for European races). The MotoGP World Championship Paddock is made up of around 160 trucks and if they were lined up one after the other, we could form a 3 kilometer traffic jam!
A layout of the paddock to the millimeter
It is then a quasi-military organization which allows the paddock to be arranged. This starts 2 months before the race, to define the locations and the order of arrival. During race week, the first vehicles arrive on Monday, to allow for the installation of hospitality. Then the MotoGP trucks are authorized to access the boxes on Tuesday afternoon, followed by the Moto2 and Moto3 teams, the last authorized to set up, on Wednesday morning.
A tiny part of the 40 m² paddock
On Wednesday, the teams install and decorate the boxes, then prepare the motorcycles until Thursday evening, which is media day. That day, the pilots appeared and responded to journalists in the press room.
Once the trucks are all parked, the stands set up and the hospitality units erected, the Paddock is a fascinating sight to behold. It measures around 40 square meters and consumes more electricity than an entire village during a Grand Prix weekend. In addition, he sees between 000 and 2 people swarming for each event: drivers, team personnel, journalists and many other people.
The transport, organization and logistics of the team's equipment are invisible to the public eye but are an integral part of a successful weekend for a MotoGP team, with many factors to consider even before the MotoGP prototypes arrive. are started.
