• News

Teams to change safety procedures after Williams fire

Bruno Senna's chassis was salvageable although the team had to replace all of the metallic parts © Sutton Images

Enlarge

Related Links

• News:
• Williams recovered following fire
  

• Teams:
• Williams

Williams has said it is working with its fellow teams and the FIA to ensure a garage fire like the one in Spain two weeks ago does not happen again.

The team's garage was left devastated after a fire broke out in the refuelling area after the Spanish Grand Prix. Members of several teams helped Williams fight the fire but chief operations engineer Mark Gillan revealed in Monaco that 90% of the team's garage infrastructure had been destroyed.

The exact cause of the fire is still under investigation, but Gillan ruled out rumours that the KERS unit in Bruno Senna's car might have been to blame. He said the investigation was ongoing and he was working with fellow F1 chiefs to try to prevent a similar incident in the future.

"On the Friday afterwards I attended a TWG [Technical Working Group] meeting and, [although] I'd say things are still coming up [in the investigation], I spoke to the technical directors and FIA to explain what our understanding was and the chain of events that caused the fire. It happened in the fuel handling area, so it was a fuel handling related fire, but the exact cause we are still investigating. We're liaising with the FIA to ensure procedures - not just within the garage but obviously within the circuit - are improved so that something like that doesn't happen again."

He added: "There will definitely be a change to certain procedures, but we have all agreed a certain level of cover [for incidents] at a circuit and that level of cover was in place. I think collectively we need to look at the level of cover when it's in place - both the fire and medical support - and undoubtedly things will change as a result of this."

Gillan said Williams had already changed some of its procedures for this weekend's race and that F1 had to learn from the fire.

"It's never just one thing that happens, it's a chain of events, but thankfully it's a very rare occurrence," he added. "I think we have to take on board that it happened and learn from it. All the teams spoke last Friday, and we continue to discuss it with the FIA and everybody else involved to make the necessary changes. First of all to try and mitigate something like that happening again, and if it does happen to ensure we have the appropriate levels of care available."

Senna's chassis was salvaged from the fire but Gillan said all the metal components had to be replaced ahead of this weekend.

"On Bruno's car we lost pretty much every metallic component due to corrosion. The fire took a heavy toll. It wasn't even things that were clearly damaged, other things got damaged as a result of the fire afterwards."

And after being loaned pieces of equipment by fellow teams, Gillan is confident Williams has everything it needs to perform this weekend.

"We have been able to replace pretty much everything and we're certainly fully operational," he added. "There's a few things that we don't have, such as an abundance of radios and kit like that, but it doesn't stop us operationally.

"We have borrowed equipment from other teams as well, not only do they come to help with the fire and that side, but they've come good on their offers for support and we've taken certain teams up on that. So we're borrowing equipment at the moment but we're still fully operational.

"To be honest, if you go to the garage you wouldn't know that we'd had a fire. It's been an unbelievable effort from everyone concerned. It's hampered our progress but it's just added to what is already a busy time. In reality you could run an F1 car with a laptop, although you wouldn't want to."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.