Agree 100% not apples to apples. I just got a kick out of of long hard hours. Those are not long hard hours in my book..

I also do not get he month of August off. I do not get every Monday through Wednesday off and I do not get every winter off.

Yes, I am not traveling. If you think I saw my family from M-F you would be mistaken. If they did see me it was when I scarfed down dinner and then retrated back to my home office to work.

Yes, my choice.

Except, a 12 hour day is not a long day. Getting 2-3 days a week off at home does not sound that horrible to me.

When I went to the 2011 Montreal F1 race I happened to be in the same hotel as the Ferrari mechanics. I saw them in the morning in the lobby at 0800 heading to the track which surprised me, and again in the lobby at 1800. I did not see them gone for 12 hours when I saw them. I met with Will Buxton at a bar Thursday (might have been Friday) evening where a Red Bull and Force India mechanic came to say some words with us, along with a reserve driver for FI.

It seemed back then to be a cool gig. Especially if you are younger.

Maybe it has changed a lot, I still think it is a cool gig I would have loved to had when I was in my twenties.

Conclusion - 48 hour work week + travel does not sound horrible to me.



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I'm probably in a similar situation to Jim. I am looking forward to a return to more normalcy, but in the past 4 years have begun to sleep more often in my office than at home. There is no point to counting the hours that I work. It's easier to count the 4-5 hours that I sleep, and there have been no days off. The Christmas weekend has been my first opportunity to get real sleep since June. Part of it is that I'm building net worth, and part of it is that people depend on me. A lot of people.

I met some colleagues for beers this past Wednesday night. Out of the 4 if us, 2 work for big corps, 2 have mom and pops. I have the smallest company with 3 employees.

Out of the 4 there I make the most money (profit not revenue) and also work the most hours.

Honestly do not want to keep up this insane pace, I figured the business I am in would be slowing by now. I keep arguing with my wife about either downsizing the customers or hiring help (unlikely). I keep pushing back the date for that decision. Wanting to see what the economy is going to do.


I thought this morning. This article is discussing European employees. They are mortified by the prospect of working a 40 hour week.

Therefore to disclose a 48 hour work week, well, that is a horrific prospect. Us crazy Americans think a 48 hour week is a short week. Especially the self employed.



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Our philosophy was to just raise the prices on projects and clients that are not our best customers. Some will go away, and roll around in the mud looking for a few bucks cheaper company, but most just accept a small bump, and we make more money, and have less work. Win Win.

Well this thread has derailed...

When I started work at the tender age of 2yrs old I'd go to bed 2hrs after I got up to start work down a mine with only by bare hands to dig with, working 29hrs a day to earn frequent beatings, only food was leftover coal/rocks and 25 of us lived in a shoe :D

Then I got a job in F1 and life is just all super models, champagne and parties :cool:

This is what happens in the off-season. Racing is life. Everything before or after is just waiting. Now get back to work to give us something to post about!

I was with a small Formula 5000 team (3 plus the driver, who flew in for the race weekend and did nothing) and it was long travel days in the big van truck and long days at the venue. It was also a lot of fun for a 20 YO. I did this for part of one season. They didn't have the budget to race all the races. (LeGrand). I was paid very little, but given a place to sleep, get a shower and enough food. Mostly fast food, as it were, in the late "60's.

but I got to be around the drivers and celebs of the day. David Hobbs was the hot shoe then. Smothers and Garner were always around somewhere, except they stayed at the best hotels and ate in the best restaurants. No one had a rolling kitchen and personal chef then. I think all that stuff came with guys like Penske when he became an owner.

I was in construction by then. Making money and working normal hours.

:D months of waiting still left for me but this should give you something to post about

Had an interesting discussion with a F1 technical director last week and one question I asked was 'which team does he think will win the 2022 championship?'

He thought 'Ferrari' would win, answer surprised me as it wasn't his team but made a lot of sense

Ferrari have two extremely quick drivers who consistently deliver, Leclerc and Sainz could be considered the strongest driver pair. Ferrari haven't been distracted with a 2021 world championship fight so will have switched more resource earlier into the 2022 rule changes. 2021 PU spec's have been frozen until 2026 which will stabilize the PU war

In F1, aero is king, track performance is usually directly related to the amount of wind tunnel running time ie more time spent in the tunnel the faster your car goes

Due to Ferrari finishing 3rd in 2021 the team will also receive extra valuable wind tunnel time compared to Mercedes and RBR, see below article

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.how-f1s-new-sliding-scale-aero-testing-rules-work-and-what-impact-they-will.pn0sG8N4A0cjbNRbdYx8a.html

There is a chance that one team hits the sweet spot and runs away at the beginning, maybe enough to keep the other behind until the end of the season

Great story Zeke, I did similar in my mid 20's, so can appreciate the fun times you would have had

Same deal as you, food, a place to sleep and that was it for helping a team in the F1 Inshore Powerboat World Championship, got picked up in a converted bus from a freeway junction in the UK and we'd drive across Europe to race in places like Milan or south of Budapest

Fun times!

Did I sleep through September ? 😁 . Alex Albon signed with Williams for 2022 .


https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.espn.com/f1/story/_/id/32170066/alex-albon-return-f1-williams-2022%3fplatform=amp