A drop of Yorkshire water is key for the perfect pit-lane brew

THEY may be more than 3,000 miles from home in sunny Bahrain this weekend, but a few Yorkshire comforts will be close to hand for the White Rose county's Formula 1 debutants.

Like a drop of finest Yorkshire water from a tap, bottled up and shipped out to the Middle East to keep Virgin Racing team principal John Booth happy when he sips his cup of tea in the hectic pit lane.

The logistics of moving a team of over 30 engineers across the world at the start of a 19-stop grand prix season has proven almost as difficult as getting the cars ready for drivers Timo Glock and Lucas di Grassi.

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So a cup of tea with some good old Yorkshire water soothes the mind.

"We ship both by air and by sea," said Booth, who sent sea freight out from Manor Motorsport's base in Dinnington as early as January 22.

"Heavy things like electrical cables, consumables and hazardous fluids, such as oils, sprays and glues, are sent by ship, but we send most of the equipment by air freight.

"For Bahrain, we sent about 26.5 tons by air, and six tons by sea. We also send things like tables, chairs and pit trolleys by ship, too, not to mention the Yorkshire water – to make sure we can make a proper cup of tea!

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"There are only a few people involved with logistics, two or three that are really involved, and when we're at the circuit we have other roles to fulfil too."

With the first four grands prix of the season seeing the F1 circus travelling from Bahrain to Australia, Malaysia to China, plenty of bottled Yorkshire water is needed, as well as supplies to sustain the team, who will not return to England until the middle of April.

Spare parts are essential, with 160 wheels (40 sets) transported around the world. The tyres are provided by Bridgestone and are transported around the world by the manufacturer.

Booth said: "The start of the season consists of four flyaway races, so a lot of our equipment will be travelling the world for a couple of months. They won't come back until after the race in China. We only send important items that need to be crash-tested back to the factory.

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"When we have two weeks between races, the cars will come back to Yorkshire, but for some races we will go direct from circuit to circuit.

"We have three race trucks, one of which carries the cars and also doubles as the stores at the track, plus the engineering office.

"One is a workshop, with offices for myself and Nick Wirth (technical director) and the third is used as a set-up truck.

"We also have four trucks which carry the hospitality centre – that was supplied by another Yorkshire company, Litestructures, who are from Wakefield."

Virgin freight timeline

n January 22: Sea freight leaves Southampton.

n February 6: Team leaves for Spain testing in Jerez.

n February 28: Team arrives home from Spain.

n March 6: Air freight leaves East Midlands Airport.

n March 8: Team leaves England for Bahrain.

n April 20: Team returns home from China.

n Distances travelled:

England to Spain 862

England to Bahrain 3,300

Bahrain to Melbourne 7,523

Melbourne to Kuala Lumpur 3,950.

Kuala Lumpur to Shanghai 5,900