McLaren to source alternative F1 hospitality unit for Austrian GP

McLaren will source an alternative F1 hospitality unit for next weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix, Crash.net has learned.

Dramatic scenes unfolded in the Barcelona F1 paddock on Saturday ahead of final practice when McLaren’s motorhome had to be evacuated after a suspected electrical fire broke out above the kitchen area.

Emergency services and fire crews quickly arrived and helped get the situation under control. One McLaren team member was taken to hospital as a precaution but was later discharged.

Crash.net understands the damage is not too substantial and is mainly isolated to one area of the unit, with the main concern for McLaren being the need to get rid of the smell of smoke.

F1’s governing body the FIA are putting McLaren’s personnel and guests up for the remainder of the Spanish Grand Prix weekend with their Team Hub out of action.

While it is too early to say what McLaren will do for the upcoming British Grand Prix at Silverstone on July 7, the British squad will source an alternative hospitality unit for next week’s race in Austria as a temporary  solution. 

It is unclear at this stage whether it will be another team’s old motorhome.

After claiming pole position for the Spanish Grand Prix, Lando Norris detailed how the fire impacted McLaren’s preparations on Saturday.

Norris was seen walking away from McLaren’s hospitality in just his socks, having “lost” his shoes during the evacuation.

“The best thing is everyone’s safe, everyone’s doing well,” Norris said. “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.”

The 24-year-old Briton also heaped praise on rival teams for helping McLaren out following the fire.

“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.

“I’ve had a lot of offers from people, so it’s been great. A lot of the teams, honestly, have been very, very nice to us, McLaren, in offering help and things like that. So that was all good from that side.

“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.”