Shanghai, 19 April 2010

The day after the Chinese Grand Prix is dominated by insecurities as far as the return home of the Formula 1 teams is concerned, due to the volcanic ash blocking the sky over Europe. Yesterday only some of the numerous members of the teams managed to get on board of planes leaving for Europe: for the Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro Team Principal Stefano Domenicali and Technical Director Aldo Costa. The remaining members of the team will leave gradually: a first group tonight and another one early tomorrow morning, followed by the third and last group on Wednesday morning. Where the groups will fly to is still not sure. Everything depends on the weather conditions over the next hours.

Meanwhile all the teams are in the same condition, although the Scuderia set up an emergency plan, which will enable also Toro Rosso and Sauber to come back to their home countries by Wednesday night. It will be slightly more difficult to foresee the date when the material, single-seaters included, will arrive. Fortunately the Eyjafjollajokull erupted before a relatively long break of the race calendar: the next Formula 1 race will be held on the Circuit de Catalunya on 9 May. Otherwise Formula 1 would have experienced the same problems as Moto GP, the motorbike racing series had to postpone the race in Motegi until autumn. In case the material from China should arrive too late, then there might be some problems as far as the preparations for the Spanish GP are concerned.