Spanish Grand Prix pole-winner Lando Norris expressed relief no one was badly hurt in the fire that broke out in McLaren’s hospitality suite yesterday.
The Team Hub was evacuated and fire fighters called to the scene before final practice yesterday. McLaren confirmed one team member was taken to hospital as a precaution and later discharged.“The best thing is everyone’s safe, everyone’s doing well,” said Norris after his pole-winning lap. “So that’s probably the best news from everything. One person was taken to hospital just for some check-ups, but all good otherwise.
“So it was a bit of a scare for the whole team, never a nice thing. But just a bit more of probably a stressful day than I would have liked.”
Norris had to leave the hospitality suite wearing his socks but was able to locate a pair of driving boots for yesterday’s track action.
“I lost my shoes, that was probably as bad as it got for me, honestly,” he said
“It’s all been a little bit messy but I think I have one or two sets of everything and I think they managed to get some stuff out but some of it’s probably not the best to use or it smells pretty bad from the fire,” Norris added.
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He’s also no longer able to use his room in the motorhome. “I’ve not been in my normal room,” he explained. “I’ve not been able to maybe relax and chill out as much as what I normally do.
“It’s a shame that it won’t be used today or tomorrow, I don’t think, for anything – maybe not into the future, but that’s not anything that I know about for now.”
A solution was found which involved moving Norris and team mate Oscar Piastri into the team’s engineering trucks. However Norris pointed out that has left McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown without an office.
“Some things I got out, but I like to listen to my music and stuff before [sessions] and Oscar complains a lot because my music’s so loud. But I just didn’t have that this time.
“I’m up in the engineering office and Oscar’s down in the truck below. And that’s Zak’s office that I’ve taken over, so now Zak’s a bit unhappy.”
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However given the circumstances Norris stressed that “nothing’s been an issue” for him. “I’ve never been that guy to kind of complain about these things.
“Honestly, I could just be doing nothing and just jump in the car when I need to. But when you have an ability to have a few minutes to yourself and a couple of those things, you take them, because you want to just relax and think to yourself for a few minutes before you go out and do it.
“Maybe tomorrow it will impact me a bit more that I can’t get that quiet time that I love. But it’s not the end of the world, so I’m not going to complain about it.”
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Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
23rd June 2024, 10:23
Could be a lucky fire. Last time a team had a fire here (Williams in 2012) they won the race!