Ivan, F2 mechanic in the middle of the Emilia-Romagna disaster

The storm Minerva became cruel and merciless. The Italian region of Emilia-Romagna saw how 25 population full of life was flooded. More than 20,000 people were evacuated since early Wednesday morning and 14 dead are counted Until now. A tragedy that took home thousands of people. It changed his life. The least of which is whether or not the F1 GP will be held at Imola is debatable this Saturday or Sunday, cancelled following the announcement from F1 on Wednesday midday. Back then, towns and cities in the area were under water and mud for hours. During that time, about 10,000 people were evacuated. Witnessing this was a mechanic from one of the most prestigious teams in the Formula 2 and Formula 3 World Cup, Prema Racingthird car mechanic 7 driven by Danish Frederik Vesti. This is Iván Rodríguez, native of Lleida (29 years old). He finds himself caught in the middle of a maximum emergency situation and he will report to MD.

Ivan did not hesitate to attend this newspaper after experiencing the most difficult moment of his career. Rodríguez, according to family tradition, was also a truck driver. This A former student from the Monlau school managed the acquisition of a truck with Prema Formula 2 cars, spare parts, tents and box structures for the Italian event. Everything is going according to plan: he has to come on Tuesday. And on Wednesday, the day the whole team arrived, he had to set up the tent and all the team’s infrastructure, as well as the cars, along with other mechanics, so they could pass the technical tests on Thursday. before going out on the track on Friday. But everything started to go wrong.

“We arrived on Tuesday at noon and we stopped at the last service point before reaching Imola because shortly before we were notified by mail of Ban entry to the Imola paddock. At that service area were other equipment trucks, all awaiting word from the organization. Our problem is the lack of information. We waited there for an hour to get more information, and when we found out that we won’t have news until Wednesday if the Grand Prix will take place and how to proceed, we (he and the driver of the other truck with the F3 cars) We decided to leave the truck in a parking lot in Imola to take a taxi to the hotel”, remember Ivan What he doesn’t know is that his lodging is the closest thing to a large trap.

Going up to the room, he looked out the window and realized the danger. He Hotel Rosa dei Ventiin a small town called Ca di Lugo, it is attached to the same river that threatens the Imola circuit, the Santerno.

everything will change

The rooms are located on the second floor. For this reason, at the reception they reassured him, told him there was no danger and informed him that more news about the red alert was expected at midnight. But they came earlier. While the two drivers were having dinner and watching the Champions League game between Inter and Milan, the reception phone rang. This is a warning of danger. The hotel asked all guests to go upstairs to the rooms to be safe. Ivan couldn’t sleep a wink as he waited for further news.

do good At 00.30 he received a call in his room: “We have to evacuate the hotel because of the risk of flooding”. Hotel employees took it upon themselves to take them to a pavilion set up to care for the evacuees. At first no luck: it was full. They went to another pavilion, the Palazzetto dello Sport in Lugoanother one of the cities whose center was flooded.

A night you will never forget

There, the Croce Rossa welcomed them. “I will always be grateful to you. They are very kind and work day and night without rest.” Emergency equipment began to arrive: blankets, beds, chairs, and Ivan and his partner did not hesitate to go to work to gather everything, to help with the beds, tables, food and drinks that arrived before more evacuees appeared. It was going to be a long night. Half an hour later, at 1 a.m., the movement of people began.

“They lost everything…”

“Old people came, with wheelchairs, with difficulty moving… we were there because they caught us there, but we lost nothing, and people came who really lost everything, who didn’t know how everything was and what their life will be like in the future. Worried”.

There were some troops from the Croce Rossa (Red Cross) and Civil Protection, but any help was little. The two mechanics gave their two beds to the affected and did not intend to sleep, but to help. There is nothing they can do but try to calm people down and offer them a conversation at a very sensitive moment. “I try to help them by listening, giving encouragement. People cried, they were sad, they were upset… you tried to give them support”.

“People need to talk. Our team’s color is red and they thought we were from the Red Cross, they asked us for information and it was a mess because it was 3:30 in the evening… and people kept coming all night and the next day. Next door we have a small runway where the helicopter can land and about 5 or 6 people come”. Among them, there was a couple whose story affected Ivan: “They were on the roof of a car from 3 in the morning and arrived at 8 in a helicopter”. Almost 3 hours in a few square meters, surrounded by water, in the dark of night, not knowing if anyone will follow them.

“They told us their stories. I remember the case of some people who had to drive 20 km to try to cross a bridge and be safe. There were some restaurant owners who were completely flooded, who tried to stop it until the last moment, but they couldn’t. And they are all worried about their houses. People came who lived on the ground floor, near the river… mostly elderly people who had to live in houses in the rural areas of Lugo, near the river,” he said.

And despite that sadness, some even found a smile in the midst of so much tragedy to joke about them when they found out they were Spanish mechanics: “Are you Spanish? from F1? Aren’t you Alonso?”Several people affected Ivan said.

In total, about 40 people gathered at the sports center, a number that grew the following day. The night is heavy. And more, by not having information on the situation. Therefore, when the first rays of the sun come out, the Croce Rossa, Civil Protection and some are affected in good condition several groups of people were formed to inspect the area near the pavilion in search of people who needed more help.

And after lunch, at 3:30 pm, the notification came that another part of the river near Lugo had overflowed and more affected people were coming. The two mechanics do not want to occupy beds, chairs or eat provisions that other people need more. They decided to leave. A few kilometers away is the hotel reserved by the team for the pilots, who will no longer attend. They went there, leaving behind dozens of stories still searching for answers.

Arriving at their new residence, the two mechanics rested, had dinner and at 11:00 in the evening they took a taxi to Imola. “You can’t leave the city because of the highway cuts, also flooded towards Rimini”. But they managed to access their trucks and head to the Prema headquarters, towards Padova and Vicenza, in Grisignano di Zocco.

“Should have been canceled earlier”

When the two mechanics traveled to the team’s headquarters, they knew the race had been cancelled, since F1 had announced it at midday. But the night before, the tension and nervousness of the moment was added to the uncertainty of not knowing if after all this they should prepare to live a difficult race weekend without sleeping before.

“We lack information. It comes dropper. They have told us all along that when they know something they will let us know. When a disaster like this happens, it shouldn’t be delayed or thought about whether or not to cancel. We do it to distract people, we are an event. As I always say, we are like a circus. Without people, what’s the point of it all? What’s the point of throwing the ambulance and helicopter resources you need into the circuit if there are people out there who need these resources? How ethical was it?”, exclaimed the hero of this cruel story to MD.

The calendar, a slab for F2 and F3 mechanics

In this sense, he asks that people, and especially F1, put themselves in the place of the mechanics of the lower categories that compete in the same race weekend as the ‘Great Circus’.

“When I was in the pavilion I couldn’t rest, I helped and I didn’t even think about sleeping, and on top of that, you know you have tough days ahead of you.You have no idea if there will be a race… and nerves are high. Everything should have been canceled earlier.”pointed out the final decision to cancel the race, wanting to show the problem of fatigue that exists in all the mechanics of Formula 2 and Formula 3. If the race is held, all the work is compressed and it is clear that Few days I hope I can’t sleep.

“F1 has a time limit regulation for its mechanics, it has a group of people who assemble the box, another who assembles the cars… but not us! We do it all ourselves. If they tell us to enter the circuit with the trucks on Thursday because the GP is taking place, it’s a bitch because we have to enter, set up tents, boxes, panels, cars, prepare everything.. .”he added.

“If we had rested a little on a normal weekend, in a situation like this they have to stop everything before, it doesn’t make sense to ask you anything. It cannot be done. Imagine that you come from not sleeping and you ride on Thursday, you don’t sleep, on Friday you run and if you have a small problem with the car you won’t sleep that night either because you will take. dirty, Formula 2 cars are very complex. And we came from the test in Barcelona, ​​​​and had the race in Imola, and then the next week in Monaco, and the next week in Barcelona: 35 days of non-stop work. Oysters! I think few control these times and this calendar”, Ivan taught.

It is no longer a flood. It is about the difficult calendar that promotes competition, which leads workers to push themselves to the limit, with a difficult reconciliation of family and private life at work, with a lot of time behind them and a lot of accumulated stress . Mechanics are the shadow heroes of this sport that many people love. Ivan also had a day for the talks he gave to dozens of affected people who gathered in his pavilion. Speaking, with just the power of words, he stopped those people for a few seconds from thinking that he no longer had a home. That his life changed forever.