Renault, McLaren break curfew after oil arrives late

Renault and McLaren were both forced to break the curfew this morning at Suzuka due to the late arrival of their BP/Castrol lubricants from Europe.

Both teams were granted dispensation for the curfew breach because the circumstances surrounding weather delays were outside of their control.

Due to ongoing storms, Osaka airport has been closed on a regular basis in recent weeks, which has led to freight being diverted to Tokyo. That has in turn led to a backlog in the customs warehouses at the capital’s airport.

Some F1 freight destined for Suzuka became caught up in those delays, and crucially for Renault and McLaren it included the oil and hydraulic fluids that they needed to run the cars.

It hadn’t made it to the track on Thursday, which meant that neither team could run through its usual pre-weekend procedures such as firing up the engines. Renault customer Red Bull was not affected, as the team uses Exxon/Mobil.

After some chasing by F1’s freight organization, the missing products finally made it to Suzuka overnight, so both teams sent their crews in early to ready the cars for FP1 and fire them up. That meant breaking the curfew, which ended at 7am.

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