MAY 25, 2006

The strangest ship in the harbour

The Red Bull Energy Station is an amazing construction at the best of times. It travels from race to race being built and taken down at amazing speed and rushed around Europe in a fleet of 25 trucks. For Monaco, however, things are a lot more difficult because there is not enough space in the paddock to fit the huge construction - which houses the Red Bull Racing and Scuderia Toro Rosso teams. There was an additional problem as construction of the Energy Station had to be done on the weekend before the Grand Prix and Monaco was busy hosting the Historic Grand Prix, which meant that the fleet of trucks could not come and go and normal.

The solution therefore was to construct a barge and float the entire structure into the harbour. Planning for the operation began six months ago and space was rented in the harbour area at Beaulieu sur Mer, eight miles down the coast from Monaco towards Nice. The construction of the barge required 45 trucks and the energy station added another 25. Work took 12 days and 7000 man-hours before the barge set sail for Monaco, a four-hour voyage.

On arrival this strange craft attracted some very weird looks as it sailed into Monaco harbour.

And that was before it was decorated to promote the movie Superman Returns!