23/09/2011
NEWS STORY
Mat Coch writes:
One of the many challenges faced by teams in Singapore is adjusting - or more to the point not adjusting - themselves to local time. With the race scheduled to start at 8pm on Sunday night - that's 1pm in the UK - most choose to stay on European time.
The vast majority of paddock insiders therefore head to bed as the sun rises, re-emerging from their hotel rooms around noon. It makes for a difficult weekend where one's body clock is constantly at odds with the actual time. Even the FIA works to European time, enforcing the paddock curfew on teams from 9am until 3pm each day, as opposed to the usual midnight to 8am in Europe.
An innocent mistake by Toro Rosso boss Franz Tost saw him fall foul of the regulation, forcing the team to use one of its four exceptions to the curfew rule. According to the team Tost simply got the time wrong and arrived at the circuit too early, a mistake which is easy to make given the 'working' day in Singapore runs through the night.
Indeed it's so easy Mat Coch, Pitpass' man on the ground in Marina Bay, has had to be corrected more than once as he loses track of the days - at one point suggesting the race started at 8pm on Saturday night - while even Pirelli listed its press conference on the wrong day.
While not directly involved in the maintenance of the cars, Tost still has to observe the curfew regulation. It is the first time the Italian team has broken the curfew this season, meaning the team escapes penalty. However Tost's mistake has left the Red Bull feeder team somewhat red faced.