Williams garage fire

[Somebody]

Apparently a KERS fire, which happened over an hour after the race, and there are injuries, but Frank Williams just appeared on Sky okay.

[Mark]

Wow. Proper massive fire. Puts a downer on their win.

[christophulus]

Wow :(


http://desmond.yfrog.com/Himg863/scaled.php?tn=0&server=863&filename=pddxt.jpg&xsize=640&ysize=640

yfrog Photo : http://yfrog.com/nzpddxtj Shared by GP1FOXSPORTS (http://yfrog.com/nzpddxtj)

[gloomyDAY]

http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/457297_3452248303739_1196725250_32619084_141950769 9_o.jpg

[christophulus]

IyEELHO4Xjs

[truefan72]

madness

hope everyone comes out alright

[Powered by Cosworth]

1Pq-ATlYHug

From the BBC forum, hope nobody is hurt too badly.

[christophulus]

Caterham F1 confirming that four team members are in the medical centre with minor injuries

http://hosted-p0.vresp.com/843201/c43c482716/ARCHIVE

[ioan]

That's quite a big downturn for Williams after the win. Hope they are fine and the injured people's lives are not in danger.

[truefan72]

hmm

revealing video from the bbc

much worse than I expected

[Dave B]

A couple of updates:



Caterham just released a statement on the fire. Four injured in their team, 3 respiratory and 1 injured hand.



Unconfirmed #f1 summary: 4 Williams, 4 Caterham in medical centre 1 Force India removed to hopsital. Fire not started by Kers. Fuel ignited

[steveaki13]

Bad news.

This is such a downer after what was a great day in the recent history of Williams.

Lets hope everyone is OK with no serious injuries and all can be in Monaco in a couple of weeks.


Says here a KERS fire that caused a fuel fire???? How could that happen. Bizzare

BBC Sport - Spanish Grand Prix: Williams crew injured in pit fire (http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/18051779)

[Mark]

But there have been reports it was nothing to do with KERS. Even if it was it's easy to see possibilities. It uses batteries which can get hot or can spark both of which could cause fuel to ignite.

[Stuartf12007]

Spanish fire firghters were on strike

[call_me_andrew]

I was uner the impression that Williams uses a flywheel based KERS instead of an electric system.

[Tazio]

Details are still vague but one eyeball-witness saw Maldo, and Checo puffing some splif of some crackin' ganja right before smoke was discovered.
When questioned Maldo's only comment was:
Like zow bro, like total bummer duuuude :s mokin:

[SteveA]

Wow :(


http://desmond.yfrog.com/Himg863/scaled.php?tn=0&server=863&filename=pddxt.jpg&xsize=640&ysize=640

yfrog Photo : http://yfrog.com/nzpddxtj (http://yfrog.com/nzpddxtj) Shared by GP1FOXSPORTS

The car in this picture has not been damaged by fire, even the hydraulic reservoirs are intact.

[Mark]

I was uner the impression that Williams uses a flywheel based KERS instead of an electric system.

They developed a flywheel based system but never raced it, they've been using battery KERS since 2011.

[F1boat]

I hope that the injured people will be OK and that Williams Renault will be fully competitive in Monaco!

[SGWilko]

I was uner the impression that Williams uses a flywheel based KERS instead of an electric system.

They do have such a thing, but they abandoned it for F1 application, and are heavily involved in working with public service vehicle manufaturers in using it to store kinetic energy is buses etc.

They are using a battery KERS in F1. Not sure if it is an in house solution, or part of the Renault deal though.

[Mark]

It's their own system, they could have used the Renault one but decided the own system suited them better.

[Dave B]

The car in this picture has not been damaged by fire, even the hydraulic reservoirs are intact.

Remarkably that does indeed appear to be the case:


"We had a lot of damage and we have lost a lot of equipment, including IT equipment," said Gillan. "Over the next couple of days we will be looking at where we are parts-wise.

"We will have everything we need to run operationally at Monaco, but we may be missing a few of the extras because obviously we don't carry a complete set of spares for everything."

Initial inspections of Bruno Senna's car, which was in the garage when the fire erupted as it had not finished the race, suggest that the chassis is undamaged.

Source: Williams thankful to rivals for help with garage fire in Spain - F1 news - AUTOSPORT.com (http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/99613)

[Knock-on]

BBC Sport - Williams change pit procedure after Spanish Grand Prix fire (http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/18178948)

The show must go on. Well done everyone.

[AndyL]

Turns out the tub was the only part of Senna's chassis that was recoverable. Quote from Mark Gillan in the article Knock-on linked above: "...on [Bruno Senna's] car we lost pretty much every metallic component, due to corrosion." ...from the extinguishant presumably.

During practice this morning the Sky commentators were talking about whether the engine needed to be replaced, and if so, whether it would count against Bruno's engine allocation. Some speculation that it might have already been removed from the car and packed away before the fire. Anyone heard any further info on that?

[SteveA]

Turns out the tub was the only part of Senna's chassis that was recoverable. Quote from Mark Gillan in the article Knock-on linked above: "...on [Bruno Senna's] car we lost pretty much every metallic component, due to corrosion." ...from the extinguishant presumably.


I've seen badly corroded circuit boards after a building fire - especially any equipment that was fan-cooled and running at the time of the fire. Also you get lots of steam when the fire brigade start pouring in water, and that gets into everything and causes more damage.

[Dave B]

Also you get lots of steam when the fire brigade start pouring in water, and that gets into everything and causes more damage.
When I accidentally set fire to my garage a few years back (don't ask) the water did more damage than the fire itself had until that point.

[SGWilko]

I was uner the impression that Williams uses a flywheel based KERS instead of an electric system.

OT but OT if you get what I mean.

See here;

Williams wins at Le Mans! « (http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2012/06/18/williams-wins-at-le-mans/)

[seppefan]

OT but OT if you get what I mean.

See here;

Williams wins at Le Mans! « (http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2012/06/18/williams-wins-at-le-mans/)

Quality from Williams who now seem to be building a more commercial and varied platform to their business.

[ArrowsFA1]

Quality from Williams who now seem to be building a more commercial and varied platform to their business.
That's been there for quite some time, but perhaps it hasn't generated the publicity that a Le Mans win generates.

Dont forget that Williams helped design and develop the Metro 6R4 rally car many years ago, the Renault Laguna touring car and more recently the Formula 2 car. Their core business has always been, and will always be, F1 but their skills have been applied elsewhere. It's one of the reasons some of us have been relatively confident about their future.

[Azumanga Davo]

Add in the BMW V12 LMR to that list as well.

[Knock-on]

And a Clio as well

[SGWilko]

And a Clio as well

Just the one?

Nicole, Papa?

[Dave B]

Their core business has always been, and will always be, F1 but their skills have been applied elsewhere. It's one of the reasons some of us have been relatively confident about their future.
Indeed. It also explains why, when so many midfield and lower teams have disappeared or been bought out, Williams have survived with their finances in the black despite their rather drastic drop-off in performance in recent years.