EXCLUSIVE: The man responsible for getting F1 around the world explains why the two cancelled races can't be replaced

Moving Formula 1 around the world is no easy feat. All 11 teams are shipped to 24 different countries on a insanely-tight schedule.

Teams, garages, cars, hospitality, fan zones - even plates and cutlery are moved halfway across the world every year and Simon Price is one of the main people behind the project.

Price is the Motorsport Event Manager for DHL Global Forwarding, the section of DHL that specifically focuses on motorsport and Formula 1.

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Formula 1 will not replace the cancelled Saudi Arabian and Bahrain Grands Prix, and DHL's movements from Melbourne handed us the key to how this situation would all transpire.

The monolithic entity of F1

"Blimey. Basically, at a Grand Prix, we move and deliver everything except the circuit," explains Price, sitting down exclusively with Wide World of Sports.

"If you look around here, what you're seeing - everything that's here - from the guys over there at Sky (Sports) doing the TV, we bring in all their equipment.

"We bring in all the catering equipment for the teams, so we will even ship in their knives, their forks, their plates, their cups. In events like this where there's temporary structures, we'll even bring in their cookers, and their sinks sometimes.

"For upstairs, we have the Paddock Club. We bring in all the Paddock Club suites. Suites we bring; we deliver that up there.

"We bring all the team kit, all the garage in, all the sporting you see there, the cars, everything that's there. And then all the F1 equipment that does all the TVing for the broadcasters.

"You've got the international media. We bring the international media in for Sky, DAZN, Canal+, and all the media outlets that travel with it.

"Not the local media, but all the ones that travel around with it.

"On top of that, we bring in the Fan Zone stuff. You'll see the simulators, the Pit Stop Challenge, and everything like that. That's all shipped in by us as well. We do all of that."

For Price, the logistics of moving this amount of freight starts months, even years, before the races.

Nearly 11 charter planes take each team's entire garages to Albert Park, but not even all that planning can stop any mistakes from happening.

"I think all of that comes in approximately ... between 130 to 160 sea freight containers per race. It all depends on what support series we have.

"There's a standard eight charter planes. For this race, we've had 11 charter planes come in that we chartered to bring the freight in because we brought the F2 and F3 in as well, plus an additional charter from the UK."

How the conflict can impact freight

For DHL, they could tick every box on their side of the equation and still have freight held up by unforeseen circumstances.

War in usual trade routes and the cancellation of two key races in a F1 season is just the latest example.

Boats can break down in the middle of the ocean or important routes such as the Suez Canal can be blocked by militant groups.

"I have a team in China that has been there delivering all the sea freight," added Price.

"The teams and all the other suppliers have approximately six sea freight sets, and they're leapfrogging themselves around the globe at the moment.

"We split our crew into two groups: Team Red and Team Yellow.

"Team Yellow is here (in Melbourne), and Team Red is in China. Once Team Yellow finishes here, they're going to Japan to handle the sea freight that's already arriving there.

"It's amazing; everything is just sitting there, and we're just managing those rotations now.

"The sea freight from here is going to various locations depending on which company and customer requires it.

"Some of it is going to Singapore to be held for that race, and some is going back to Europe because they require it there."

What about a replacement?

Many have asked the question: 'why not replace one of the two cancelled races?'

But Price argues that even if DHL got every piece of equipment to a new race track, they still couldn't hold a Formula 1-grade race.

"The thing is, it's so complicated to put on one of these races," he explained.

"It's not just about moving the equipment there, which is, as we've discussed, it's a challenge all of its own, but even when we've pre-planned it, it's still a challenge.

"It's the infrastructure in and around to run one of these races because there's so much technology, the network systems that run these.

"What we see here is the hardware, but there's the electronics that goes to run it.

"If you think of it like a human body, this is the body that we're looking at from the outside, but inside there's all the brain, the pathways, the nerve centres.

"And that has to be in place in a country for this to exist. And I don't think that's there. It's not one of those things you can just turn up and go and just say, 'okay, we're going to go to, I don't know, rumours down the paddock. We're going to go to Portimao.'

"Well, they don't have the infrastructure set there.

"It's not that Portimao doesn't have it, but we haven't put it in there to be able to produce it for this, and that takes time."

Melbourne as a logistic struggle

Albert Park in Melbourne is a huge outlier in the Formula 1 calendar.

It's more than 16,900km away from the UK, where most teams are based, and is a majorly-popular season opening race that every sponsor and principal partner wants to attend.

That means Price is looking at one of the "heavily logistical" races to start off his year.

"This is probably the second or third most attended race of the season. I think you've got 480,000 people coming this weekend. It's well-supported here, and the atmosphere is great," he said.

"You couple all that together, and it's heavy logistically for us. Some races, even on the international front, are quite quiet because we don't have a lot of paddock club activity.

"But here, all the teams want to be launching their hospitality; they want to entertain guests.

"It's an important part of the world because, at the end of the day, this is not just a motor racing event, it's a massive marketing event.

"Effectively, we've got two new teams: one has taken over an existing team, which is Audi, but then you've got a brand-new team in Cadillac.

"It's important to them to launch their profile really high on a world stage. For us, Europe is a lot easier because all the teams are based there. Even the American teams have a European base.

"In places like Austria, the teams generally look after their own transportation and equipment. While we handle everyone for international races, in Europe, they largely look after themselves.

"Out of the 400 or so trucks that travel from race to race in Europe, DHL handles about 25 per cent, just over 120 trucks per race.

"It's still a logistical nightmare, especially when you go somewhere like Monaco."

Monaco, for all its glitz, glamour and glory as a important race on the F1 calendar, it presents a nightmare situation for Price and his teams.

"Monaco is unique. DHL alone has 120 trucks delivering into nine different locations: apartments, boats, paddocks, and hotels."

"We are delivering into an area built in the 1800s for horses and carts, with the sea in front of us and a mountain behind us.

"Once we've unloaded, we have to park the trucks in three different countries because they won't all fit in Monaco.

"Then, on Sunday night, we have to pack everything down and load it for a back-to-back. We race in Monaco one weekend and the next weekend we're in Barcelona.

"We have to move across to Spain and have it all set up and ready to go. Logistically, it's a massive challenge.

"I don't think there's anyone else in the world that does what DHL does within the logistical pattern of F1.

"It's truly the only global series that executes this type of calendar and these types of movements.

"It definitely has its challenges."