The 2011 season schedule has been announced on the Formula 1 website, and the circus will hopefully be stopping at a city near you next year before US flocks to the Formula 1 United States Grand Prix in 2012:
3/13 Bahrain, 3/27 Austraila, 4/10 China, 5/8 Turkey, 5/22 Spain | 5/29 Monaco, 6/12 Canada, 6/26 Valencia, 7/10 Great Britain, 7/24 Germany | 7/31 Hungary, 8/28 Belgium, 9/11 Italy, 9/25 Singapore, 10/9 Japan | 10/16 Korea, 10/30 India (subject to FIA approval of circuit), 11/13 Abu Dhabi, 11/27 Brazil
Interesting to note the number of back-to-back races next year, I expect to add to that list the United States race in Austin within a week of a 2012 Canadian GP, all of which will amounts to a slammed set of logistics from F1 official logistics partner DHL.
With F1 teams based in Europe, a trip back to a factory won’t be an option during these back to back races, so replacement parts, gear, and plenty of overnighted last minute updates for cars and teams will need to be shipped at a moment’s notice.
DHL provides logisitics to teams while incorporating a significant amount of branding and trackside signage at various venues.
DHL’s Facebook page: “Formula 1 Backstage by DHL”, is part of their ‘brandworld’ campaign to bring awareness to their global services through stories highlighting what it takes for teams and partners to create success. Although it appears Formula 1 is only a part of their overall strategy, they certainly seem to ‘get it’ when it comes to understanding what synergies between F1 fans and their brand:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaTXNLi39kE]
Back out here in California, the calendar next year will feature 5 live night races, Australia, Malaysia, China, Japan and Korea, which all air on a Saturday evening due to the time difference, usually between 9-11 pm PST. Our group here in San Francisco will probably host over 100 fans at each, and here’s some video from Austraila (140+ at this year’s event) give you an idea of where F1 in America’s heading:
I’ve been organizing these for the past 5 years locally in the San Francisco Bay Area, and we always enjoy a full house at each of our evening races. Canada and Brazil are also great to watch live over brunch, and from speaking with many of our members, I have to say all are very pleased Brazil will wrap up next year’s season.
Mid March to late November will be a long stretch of Grand Prix next year with only 3 1/2 months of off-season, so groups like ours here in San Francisco and across the US will be facing some interference with stick-and-ball fans when organizing viewing events at local sports bars. I’ll post a future piece on how to cope with that later . . . ’till then, I’m off to organize this Sunday’s race for Monza!
