At the Bernabeu stadium last Tuesday night, the fabled home of Spanish soccer behemoth Real Madrid, a giant Valencian flag was unfurled by the Real Madrid faithful during its Champions League tie against AC Milan.
As it swirled around the legions of white shirts beneath it, a moving tribute to their fellow Spaniards after the flooding tragedy of last week is being broadcast across the world.
In that crowd are Formula E’s Alberto Longo and Nacho Calcedo, together with their friends and colleagues from the Formula E paddock, Abt’s Frederic Espinos and Thomas Biermeier.
It was an emotional moment which in a way was metaphorically shared with the Formula E paddock, who displayed their own tribute with a minute’s silence and a donation of €50,000 to the official disaster relief fund this week.
Formula E pulled off several significant logistical miracles by transferring its pre-season test from Valencia to Jarama in the space of five days last week when at stages it looked like there was no hope for the crucial four days of running.
But while the possibility of the test not happening at all was one concern, behind the scenes there was a real threat that the first round of the season at Sao Paulo in early December may also have been postponed or cancelled altogether too.
An almost military-scale operation of moving freight the 220 miles from Formula E’s logistical hub at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo to the Circuito Jarama was put into motion.
On paper and in normal circumstances that sounds like a straightforward task. But with Formula E not even knowing what condition its equipment was in until last Friday and non-functioning routes around the Valencian track, the odds seemed stacked against the test happening anywhere, and at all.
Tuesday 29th/Wednesday 30th October
Devastating rainfall, more than a typical year’s worth in just eight hours, descends on the Valencia region triggering catastrophic flooding and the deaths of over 200 people.
Images and films of damage to the arterial and perimeter roads of the Circuit Ricardo Tormo start to emerge.
Teams and paddock figures contact The Race saying that there would likely be no way of the test, scheduled to begin on November 4, taking place.
Some Formula E suppliers report freight containers floating past their hotels in the suburbs of Valencia. The scale of the disaster soon becomes grimly apparent.
VP of Operations for Formula E Agus Delicado, a Valencia native, is flown out to his home city but is unable to get transport from the airport to his hotel. When he finally does, he is initially unable to reach the track and sets up a temporary nerve-centre in his hotel where he is part of a kind of military chain of command that features Longo in Madrid.
Other key figures such as Longo in Madrid and FE’s host city event director Nacho Calcedo, sporting director Claudia Denni, sporting manager, another Valencia native Irene Hvidjaer and logistics chief Barry Mortimer, quickly ascertain that Jarama would be the most likely Plan B for the upcoming test in light of the clear impracticality and human/moral reasons why any action in Valencia is simply a non-starter.
Formula E issued a statement announcing that alternative venues are being considered and expressing its sympathy for the region regarding the flooding.
Meanwhile, Circuit Ricardo Tormo managers evaluate its facilities and deem that the track is largely undamaged. However, a combination of the damaged and blocked roads together with the pressure on local emergency services makes it unlikely any activity will be held at the circuit in the short term.
“The most important thing when something like this happens is the community of Valencia,” Formula E’s COO and co-founder Alberto Longo told The Race.
“The priorities for me, that night of Tuesday and into Wednesday, was more the people of Valencia, the test came as a second priority for us."
Thursday 31st October
Longo (above) and his team quickly ascertained that Jarama would be the most likely Plan B for the upcoming test.
Calafat and Monteblanco are considered but “the problem was going north,” said Longo.
“The A3 was in a very bad condition, so we decided very quickly that it had to go west and the closest one obviously was Jarama.
“I spoke with three city mayors in the region. Valencia, Cheste and Riba-Roja de Túria, which are the three main cities affected by the rain. In my mind, I was saying there is no chance that we're going to be able to do the test, so Jarama became the one.”
Longo has to treat the response and then ensure Formula E can pivot with great sensitivity but at that time, with news still coming in of the causalities and the devastation in some remote areas around Valencia, there is still a holding pattern as Thursday goes on.
It’s a fluid, literally minute-by-minute situation. But time, which was always against Formula E anyway, is now really running out for a viable alternative and Friday is a Spanish Bank Holiday!
Jarama has several corporate events in the following week but is prepared to cancel some of these to accommodate Formula E. Some events though remain, including a motorcycling track day on the Saturday and Sunday, meaning that Formula has limited access to the circuit.
Teams are presented with options at an emergency meeting held in the afternoon which centre upon the Jarama alternative, testing prior to the season start at Sao Paulo or forsaking any testing at all.
The teams unanimously agree that Jarama is the preferred and at least possible option but there are no guarantees. Plans are set in motion to evaluate the equipment stored in Valencia before a detailed plan is worked upon on how to get it transported to Jarama in light of the road infrastructure damage.
The logistics team works in shifts but first any damage to the equipment, a large chunk of which is also for the separate freight to send to both the first two races in Sao Paulo and Mexico City (on individual missions via both air and sea) has to be reviewed.
At this stage, Longo informs CEO Jeff Dodds that should there be issues with this equipment that the bespoke nature of some of it will mean a possibility of even the Sao Paulo opener in December being in jeopardy.
Meanwhile, the call is made to teams, many of which are conducting shakedowns at private venues across Europe prior to the official test to hold their transportation and await further instructions.
Within three days of the test originally due to start an air of complete unpredictability still hangs over the test and whether it can still happen at all.
An update regarding our pre-season test in Valencia.
— Formula E (@FIAFormulaE) October 31, 2024
Formula E issues a statement late on Thursday afternoon stating publicly its intention to hold the test at Jarama starting on November 5 rather than November 4.
Friday 1st November
Meetings are still being held almost every hour at this stage and at all times of the day.
A specific logistics team meeting on Friday majors on ensuring what are now considered ‘luxuries’ such as the timing infrastructure would be able to be activated.
One slice of fortune is that Alkamel, the championship's official timing supplier, is based in Barcelona and is reasonably easily able to get to Madrid.
But that’s the only real good news of the day as because of a combination that includes the national bank holiday and transportation being essentially stuck due to the flooding in Valencia, hiring trucks to send the equipment is diminishing by, according to Calcedo, ‘from 18 trucks in the morning, then two hours later 14, three hours later, we're nine, and we ended the day with one truck on Friday!”
For Longo, this appeared to be the moment when “I thought everything was at risk.”
“Not only the test, but also the first race of the season (in Sao Paulo), because if you cannot move things out, you cannot send it, and we have a very tight schedule,” he added.
“Some of it needed to go to Milan, where all the air freight goes, and partially it also goes by sea-freight from the Port of Valencia, which is still closed, even today.”
Through using contacts in the freight industry, eight trucks are sourced and forced to make 39 journeys taking the equipment to Madrid.
The first ones arrive at Jarama as Friday turns into Saturday.
Saturday 2nd/Sunday 3rd November
Issues transferring some of the equipment that had already been delivered to Valencia as getting hold of suitable trucks was obviously an issue and on Friday the A3&A7 roads into Valencia had what was effectively the Spanish equivalent of ‘operation stack’ where traffic is held due to roads still being cleared.
While paddock access is granted over the weekend it was only Sunday evening at 18.00 that Formula E gets full access to the circuit itself where the initial build begins, ensuring that for Monday morning the temporary chicane can be erected on the start and finish straight.
Work continues as teams start to arrive on Sunday and preparation begins on building ‘a paddock’ with the assistance of the ASN (the Royal Automobile Club of Espana) and Circuito del Jarama staff.
But the main thrust of the work is completed by the Formula E operations and on-site logistics team headed by Delicado, who juggles the emotion of seeing his home province devastated and focusing on getting a four-day world championship event operational.
Monday 4th November
Works continues at the track on overlays of the paddock and ensuring that the ‘DHL boxes’ that include equipment for teams are laid out behind the garages.
Generators which are used to charge the cars for this test arrive late on Monday but are among the last vital pieces of equipment that arrive to ensure the test can hit its 2pm local start time target on Tuesday.
It starts to become clear that this will be met as drivers and team principals join their teams at the Madrid circuit and some teams take part in an impromptu track walk.
“The compliments from the team principals when you're crossing with them in the paddock, or from Jeff (Dodds) that the (logistical) staff got in the paddock made some of the guys go like ‘wow’ and they get emotional,” says Calcedo.
“Because these guys have been in Valencia, they saw things that they didn’t want to see, a lot of dramatic things so it’s very emotional for them."
Tuesday 5th November
Media arrive at the track to find a working paddock which to the uninitiated would feel like a normal test set-up. There is a lack of branding, a lot of freight boxes and temporary passes handed out but as one team principal explains to The Race, “anyone complaining about such details, clearly need to shut up!”
A spirit of achievement mixed with an emotional edge can be almost felt in the paddock, as several of the many Spanish members of the Formula E operations team in particular quite naturally appear emotional.
Just before the first session the paddock congregates on the main straight to pay respects of a minute’s silence to the victims of the floods. Several are in tears.
A few minutes later cars emerge onto the track and perhaps one of motorsport's biggest-ever logistical pivots is completed.
