The Race Before The Race
Part 1: When Formula E unveils its Season 13 calendar, the immediate reaction will be familiar. Fans will debate which cities have made the cut and which have not. Teams will examine the flow of the season. Pundits will discuss title-defining stretches of the calendar, while manufacturers and partners begin planning activations months in advance.
Paddock and Logistics Director at Formula E Holdings, Barry Mortimer, will be looking at something entirely different – the logistics challenge behind Formula E’s global calendar and how he and his wider team can get ahead of the game.
Every date on the calendar represents a logistical challenge that has already been months in the making. Every race location triggers a sequence of freight movements, customs clearances, shipping schedules and operational planning that begins long before a Formula E car turns a wheel in anger. For Mortimer, Formula E’s Paddock and Logistics Director, the publication of a calendar is not the end of a planning process. It is the beginning of one.
Few people have watched Formula E evolve more closely. Having previously worked in Formula 1 before joining the all-electric championship during its formative years, Mortimer has spent much of the series’ existence helping move it around the world. He first experienced Formula E from the team side with Virgin Racing before moving to the championship itself, giving him a unique perspective on how the series has grown from an ambitious startup into a global FIA World Championship.
“The calendar dictates absolutely everything,” Mortimer explains to FEN. “For me, it’s pretty much a year in advance.”
That reality often surprises people. While spectators see race weekends measured in hours and championships measured in months, logistics teams work to entirely different timescales. By the time a race takes place, much of the planning behind it has already been completed. Freight movements have been scheduled, shipping routes selected, contingency plans prepared and customs requirements addressed. The championship’s global journey begins long before the drivers arrive at the circuit.
The Three Plane Problem
When Mortimer moved to the championship side, he inherited a challenge that neatly captured Formula E’s wider ambitions.
“The first thing Alberto said to me was: ‘We’re on three planes, and we need to get down to two,” Mortimer says.
At first glance, the solution appears obvious. Carry less equipment. Reduce the scale of the operation. Accept compromises. But Formula E chose a different path.
Working alongside the teams and logistics partner DHL, Mortimer began a multi-year programme designed not to reduce what the championship delivered, but to fundamentally rethink how it moved around the world. The first phase removed around 20 tonnes of freight. Another 10 tonnes followed. Then came a much larger project, involving detailed analysis of what was being transported, how it was being transported and where efficiencies could be found.
The ultimate goal was to eliminate an entire cargo aircraft from the operation.
Today, Formula E operates with two Boeing 747 freighters instead of three. Yet if you walk through the paddock, you would never know.
“I could look around here and couldn’t tell you we’re bringing less stuff,” Mortimer says. “It’s the same stuff we’re bringing. It’s just the way that we move it around the world now. We’re more sustainable in the way that we’re doing that.”
That statement perhaps says more about Formula E’s approach than any sustainability report. The objective was not to make the championship visibly smaller. It was to make it smarter.
The project continues today. Looking ahead to Season 13 and the arrival of the Gen4 era, further collaboration between Formula E and the teams is already well underway. Changes to freight allocations, charging infrastructure and transport strategies are helping create additional space while accommodating the larger cars and increased performance that the next generation will bring.
“Everybody’s doing their bit,” Mortimer says. “The teams are doing a fantastic job.”
The Hidden Championship
The scale of Formula E’s logistics operation is remarkably easy to underestimate.
Most fans naturally focus on the cars, yet they represent only one component of what arrives at a race. Television compounds, charging systems, FIA equipment, branding, hospitality infrastructure, fan village installations, safety equipment, timing systems and operational facilities all need to appear in exactly the right place at exactly the right time.
By Mortimer’s estimates, the championship moves around 700 tonnes of equipment for every race.
Two Boeing 747 cargo aircraft carry approximately 230 tonnes of air freight, while multiple sea freight sets circulate constantly around the globe. Some equipment is needed immediately and travels by air. Other freight follows carefully planned maritime routes months in advance. It is the sea freight operation, rather than the aircraft, that often dictates the shape of the planning process.
“It’s the sea freight planning that really drives everything,” Mortimer explains.
The challenge becomes even more impressive when viewed through the lens of the people responsible for delivering it.
At the heart of Formula E’s logistics department sits a surprisingly small group. Mortimer, Senior Logistics Manager Alan Dennis and Dangerous Goods Specialist Stephen Wood form the core team responsible for coordinating the championship’s global movements, supported by DHL and a small travelling crew.
“Probably the amount of people that we have in the department is something that would surprise people,” Mortimer says.
The result often appears mysterious to newcomers. Staff arriving at a back-to-back event frequently find the next venue already taking shape and wonder how the championship infrastructure managed to arrive before they did.
“They ask, ‘How’s all the stuff still here? How have you done that?,” says Mortimer
Mortimer smiles and says “we call it black magic.”
Of course, there is no magic involved. Only preparation.
