Franco Colapinto’s mechanics in Alpine: work, passion and sacrifice

The group travels to the 24 races of the F1 World Championship and is under pressure in a job that is essential to obtain results. This is how those of the Enstone team live, work and prepare.

There are just under two hours left until the start of the San Pablo Grand Prix, the 21st round of Formula 1. It is exactly 12:05 noon and, while the drivers carry out the classic parade around the track (this time in some picturesque little cars) the Alpine mechanics gather at the door of the box.. VIP guests, journalists and photographers walk along the pit road, separated by extendable tapes so as not to invade the privacy of the teams. Suddenly, the members of the Enstone team begin to warm up.

The first exercise: an elastic strip that you step on and stretch by raising your arms. All paced and guided by someone who calls the shots. The movement is so synchronized that from the stalls in front of the straight, every time the Alpine mechanics raise their arms, they respond with a thunderous “Eeeeee!” Dressed in their blue clothes with pink accents, the members of the French team cannot help but laugh. And when they finish, they wave to the crowd. A while later comes tire changing practice. They do a test and they all go inside the box to see the images from the overhead camera that records them to evaluate how they perform the job. The person in charge of the group follows everything from his phone and gives them some details.

That group of mechanics is part of a delegation of almost 100 people that travels with Alpine to each race, according to what they tell AM850.com. Within that hundred, there are some specific positions that do not travel everywhere. In fact, just to give an example of a maxim, Flavio Briatore is not in San Pablo. Those in charge of the commercial part do not do the 24 races either. But there is a group that says they are present in each of the weekends: the drivers, although this year only Pierre Gasly filled all the boxes because Franco Colapinto arrived from the seventh round, the press officers and the mechanics.

Unlike Ferrari, for example, which distributes groups of different mechanics so as not to have everyone on all dates, at Alpine there is no rotation. The French team is cosmopolitan. Counting all the members, those who work in the factory and do not travel and those who are in the races, there are people of 45 different nationalities! And yes, there are South Americans, besides Colapinto, of course. There are Peruvians, Argentines…

Alpine has people who have worked there for 30 years. They come from the Benetton era, the team in which Michael Schumacher won his first two titles. All team workers live in Enstone. “It’s a place where there are only sheep and rabbits,” one team member swears to AM850.com. The small town has a population of 1,300 inhabitants and is 120 kilometers from London and 45 from the Silverstone circuit. In 1992, Benetton settled in that place, six years after the textile magnate bought the Toleman team in which Ayrton Senna had debuted.

On many occasions, the mechanics do not even have time to stop by their house after a race weekend, especially when there are three events in a row, as will happen in the closing trilogy: Las Vegas, Qatar and Abu Dhabi. Added to the trips are the change of time zone, food and water, something that requires fundamental care to avoid poisoning. The members do not all arrive at the race weekend together. It depends on each activity they have. Some arrive on Tuesday, others on Wednesday and the furthest behind, on Thursday.

Mechanics have many functions. When a driver has an accident and damages the car, as happened with Colapinto in the San Pablo sprint, they are the ones who race against the clock to try to have it ready for the next start. And, during the race, they are in charge of changing tires. Millions and millions of people watch them every time the TV shows a pit stop and they are the ones targeted when something goes wrong. A mistake can be made, because they are all human. Measures are only taken when the problem is recurring.

The big question is how much they can endure this pace of work, travel and distance from their families. Well, it depends on each one. There are members of the French team who have been there for many years and it does not cross their minds to change. “It is a difficult job, but it is done out of passion”they explain. At Alpine and all the teams, the mechanics are taken care of because it is not easy to find qualified labor that can endure such a task. That is why calls from other teams to tempt a member of a rival team are the order of the day.

Tire practice is over. Franco Colapinto just appears in the box. The parade is over. The time has come to finalize the preparation for the race. Once the San Pablo event is over and before the final triplet, the mechanics and the rest of the Alpine members will have time to go home, to be among the rabbits and sheep of Enstone.