OFFICIALS GAZETTE 2018 FORMULA 1 ROLEX AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX TOP HONOUR ROGER THAT Roger Chirnside, long-time AGP Chief Marshal of Flags, Track, Course and Spectator Teams, recently received the highest officiating honour, when he was presented the 2017 Award for the FIA Outstanding Official of the Year. This award pays tribute to exceptionally long and dedicated careers as officials in motor sport. Part of the honour is to receive this award in person at the annual FIA Prize Giving Ceremony. This season it was held in Paris, at the Palace of Versailles. Roger and his wife Joy went to Paris last December, courtesy of FIA. Last November while he was working at Sandown, Roger, was totally overwhelmed when he received a call from CAMS President, Andrew Papadopoulos, saying Roger was considered for the FIA award. Roger thought he had just been nominated. However, a call later that afternoon from Michael Smith, CAMS AGP Secretary of the Meeting, confirmed that Roger had indeed won the award. Roger didn t know what to say or do. He started receiving Congrats and well wishes from many people. What meant the most to him, he said, was the tributes and words from his three children, which they told him and posted on Facebook. And to keep him humble, they will continue to ask him for free passes to the races. Roger said the experience can t be described but he did a good job of painting a word picture of the event. It was held in the Royal Opera House in the opulent, luxurious and ancient Palace of Versailles. Everyone was all dressed up. He said he and Joy were like tourists, just agape at all the beauty. It was such a buzz to hear his name in that prestigious setting. With such a large gathering and many awards to present, a different procedure was used. A group of honorees were taken to a separate room and, in a formal, ceremonious fashion, presented their trophies. They then were walked onto the stage, a catwalk, where they were presented to the entire audience of nearly a thousand people. It was a tiered room with balconies of people, watching the pomp and circumstance. ISSUE 2 / PAGE 1
He said it was efficient and amazing. And just being there, rubbing shoulders with all the elite of motorsports, was an unbelievable experience. After the Ceremony, Roger and Joy spent an extra two days enjoying Paris, a city they love even though it s so French. Roger is in his 52nd year of race officiating. It all began in 1961 when he worked crowd control at Sandown Racecourse. He soon worked up to becoming a Flag Marshal, then Sector Marshal and then Flag Chief in the Victorian Flag Marshals - of which he is currently President. Roger has worked all 34 AGP s, starting with Turn 7 at Adelaide. Soon, the Secretary of the Meeting, Peter Nelson, offered him to first become a Deputy Sector Marshal, then Sector Marshal. In those days there was just one Flag Chief, Ted Blackwell with Alan O Dea as Assistant. When the Grand Prix moved to Melbourne, it was a much larger circuit to staff, and Peter Nelson built a three-man group of Chiefs for Flagging, Trackside and Spectators. It has now evolved to a group of five, complete with an Executive Officer to organize all the paperwork. This year they are George Chrobak as Chief Marshal, Roger as Chief Track Marshal, Paul Overall as Chief Flag Marshal, Wayne Oliver as Chief Sector Marshal and Terry O Callaghan as Chief Spectator Marshal. Catherine MacDonald is the Executive Officer. Each year they rotate the Marshal positions. Over the years Roger and his infamous hat have worked more than fifty Grands Prix in Australia and around the world, and thousands of other race meetings including Le Mans and Goodwood. Roger said he always did it, and still does it, for the love of the sport, not for any honours bestowed. He did admit that the FIA Awards experience will be a memory he will always treasure. And yet, another honor was bestowed. Recently, Paul Overall was to receive a Life Membership at the CAMS annual Motor Sports Awards celebration and invited Roger and Joy to come along as his guests, to sort of bolster him. They went, where Roger was completely surprised to be awarded the CAMS Australian Race Official of the Year. This Award recognizes outstanding achievement as a motor sport official at CAMS authorized events, or a CAMS affiliated club or activity. The recipient must be a member who has demonstrated dedication to their role, skill and knowledge in their chosen field, positive attitude, and peer recognition. The award is ordinarily bestowed on those who give their time voluntarily and serve the sport in an honorary capacity. This Friday, Roger and Joy will be the guests of CAMS at its gala Hall of Fame Banquet. ISSUE 2 / PAGE 2
THE BIGGER THE BETTER 747-8 This year the number of planes required to fly the F1 teams and TV is one less. Bill Gibson of Gibson Freight said that this year's bigger planes (747-8) hold more. This year there were fifty 40-foot shipping containers. So, there were six planes in and six planes out. One arrived 24 hours late, probably due to weather. When the planes arrived at Avalon airport outside Melbourne, they couldn t open the doors for four hours due to the stiff, high winds. Another component being used this year, maybe for the first time, are wooden blocks upon which all the F1 equipment and cars would rest should it rain. And as with everything in FIA, there is a specification attached to the blocks. There had to be 2300 of them, which arrived in three shrink-wrapped bundles. ISSUE 2 / PAGE 3
SHORT BUT SWEET CHARLIE KEEP IT UP! That was the short but sweet message from Charlie Whiting, F1 Race Director. Charlie always has good things to say about the AGP Marshals and Race Officials. In his mind, since he began as Race Director in 1996, AGP is at the high end of F1 events. The reason it s become such an incredible event that everybody who is involved in it. You go around and you see the same marshals here, which just shows that's why you have such successful events. Because there s such a lot of longevity. The way it s run is really second to none. I think a lot of that is due to the enthusiasm and also the knowledge of the marshals, which you don t see it everywhere. I think you can just rely on it. They just get on it and get the job done. These are things you need to rely on in Race Control. So, all I can say to the marshals - Keep it up! There will be no Deputy Race Director for the AGP, and Charlie said the race won t be affected. "We are taking great care to see that his duties are well-covered. Laurent Meckies, who had been the Deputy Race Director, resigned that position to accept an offer with Ferrari. That resignation was effective immediately as it wasn t appropriate that he continue in that role. He will not be at AGP. He will remain as FIA Safety Director until September. Laurent had been the first Deputy Race Director, a title which was created last year. Herbie Blash, who had worked with Charlie in Race Control for a long time, was the FIA F1 Observer. "When Herbie retired, we decided to think what s going to happen when I retire. Let s find somebody who we can bring along, so when I decide to retire, we can have a proper hand-over to someone to leave Formula One in good hands. Obviously, Laurent can t do that. That s life. So, we ll have to think again." someone should be training alongside Charlie, learning the Race Director's job and able to make the transition into the position when Charlie retires. In the meantime, the Deputy tasks will be handled, and great care will be taken to select the new Deputy. There haven t been much in the way of rule changes which affect the marshals. The biggest change is the Halo. The amount of time by which the Driver has to get out of the car has been changed in the Technical Regs. They have an extra two seconds, which doesn t affect the marshals. The Extrication Teams have been trained in how to do a proper extrication with the Halo on, remove the steering wheel, etc. And they ve all been told how to cut it off if needed. It s not expected to be necessary, but it s just an extra precaution, an option we have open to use. The Medical Car has the appropriate equipment, if there was an accident big enough to necessitate such an action. There have been reports that the cars are more difficult to push with the Halo and it s not as easy to access the steering wheel. ISSUE 2 / PAGE 4
MORE CHARLIE With the Halo on the cars now, some say spotting the drivers by their helmets won t be as easy; although Charlie says he has no difficulty. He didn t think people looked at the helmets anymore. They look at the colour of the on-board camera on top of roll hoop. It s far easier. The black camera is normally assigned to what they call the first car, although there is no official first car. And he doesn t get preferential treatment or anything like that. It s just the way the teams have nominated the drivers. The yellow camera is the second or other car. Once you know those, Marshals typically report that in. Communicators are encouraged to call the car by the camera colour. The cars have better, more visible numbers this year. The Drivers now choose their numbers, so you never know what you ve got until they show up. Same as last year, the Drivers keep their helmet livery all season. They are allowed one exception. Restart procedures have changed this year. Start-line marshals will be affected. Wet Restarts - Before, the race was normally formally started with a Safety Car. But now the Formation Lap is started with a Safety Car and does a few laps and then the Safety Car comes in and we have a Standing Start. That s the theory. But we have the option within that procedure to change our minds. If it doesn t get any drier, for example, we can revert to a rolling start, just bring the Safety Car in and go like we used to. And then the new thing for this year, however, is having a standing start after the race has been stopped. In the past when the race has been stopped, the cars will line up in the pits in the fast lane behind the Safety Car and do a number of laps depending on what the reason for the stoppage was, and then they would go for a rolling start. But now we re going to have a standing start. The Pit Marshals will now have things to do they never had to do in the past. They will do their normal duties, but with the electronic flags and the like, it should make their life a bit easier than it used to be. The Light boards used on the corners are pretty much the same, very little in the way of change. Same for the Grid Light Boards. Regarding the new F1 management for the past year, it s been different. It s hard to say that it s much affected our side. It s largely been commercial. We ve had lots of discussions about the way forward, new rules, those kinds of things. That s ongoing. But, really it has changed very little. The visible stuff, the slightly different Start procedure we had in Austin, for example. We don t get involved in those things. Another thing which Tech marshals check in initial scrutineering is the underwear to see that it s all proper. Recently in Formula E the race winner was caught out having non-approved underwear and appropriate sanctions were levied. For all the Herbie fans - he is doing fine. He was in Australia two weeks ago for the World SuperBikes on Phillip Island. Just for the record, Charlie Whiting wears several hats in FIA and F1 - Race Director, Permanent Starter, Safety Delegate and head of the F1 Technical Department. Try putting that on a name badge. ISSUE 2 / PAGE 5
VALE PETER NELSON The Confederation of Australian Motor Sport (CAMS) and the Australian Grand Prix Corporation (AGPC) are saddened to hear of the passing of long-standing official Peter Nelson. Peter has long been involved with the Australian Grand Prix in both Adelaide and Melbourne and was Secretary of the Meeting from 1985 until 2007. CAMS CEO Eugene Arocca paid tribute to Peter s outstanding contribution to Australian motor sport. Peter was without question the architect of running a modern Formula 1 race, not just here in Australia but also around the world, Arocca said. He will be sorely missed at this week s event at Albert Park. Peter was an inspiration and mentor to many, including many of us at CAMS. He was always calm, organised and his positive attitude had a profound influence on all officials. He was also heavily involved in the administration of motor sport as a National Council Member, an appointee to numerous CAMS committees, a member of the Australian Motor Race Commission, President of the Phillip Island Auto Racing Club (PIARC) and many more distinguished roles. Peter was awarded CAMS life membership in 2002. AGPC Chairman John Harnden also paid tribute to an amazing man. Peter was a true pioneer for motor sport, both four wheels and two, Harnden said. His contribution, not only at Formula 1 events around the world, but also in MotoGP, helped shape the organisation of motor sport as we know it today for which we are forever grateful. He is an amazing man who will be greatly missed. Current president PIARC Geoff Bull spoke highly of Peter. Whist we are allowed to feel sad, that Peter will not be around in a physical presence any more, I feel glad and proud to have worked, lived and played with this remarkable man for 50 years, Bull said. Peter passed away on Tuesday, 20 March, following a long battle with cancer. He is survived by his wife Marcia, children Melissa, Kirrily and Jo, along with grandchildren Kyle, Hanna, Marli and Lewis. ISSUE 2 / PAGE 6