Sporting director Sam Michael, technical director Paddy Lowe and director of
development/design Neil Oatley, offered help almost immediately once the
ashes settled on the incident at Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya.
Williams, however, still face difficulties as described by their chief
operations engineer Mark Gillan, who said: “We had a lot of damage and lost
a lot of equipment, including IT equipment.
“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.”
At present just one person, from Williams, of the 31 treated overall on Sunday
remains in hospital after suffering burns.
Williams claim the team member, who is “in good spirits” and with his family
“in constant communication”, is likely to return home tomorrow to receive
further medical care.
Williams, who was delivering a victory speech at the time an explosion rocked
the garage, has been touched by the scenes he witnessed on Sunday as so many
people came to his team’s aid.
He said: “Everyone at Williams F1 is extremely relieved the event was
contained as quickly as it was and the damage which occurred was, relatively
speaking, limited in its nature.
“While the incident was unexpected and definitely most undesirable, it has
demonstrated the genuine cohesiveness, camaraderie and spirit of
co-operation that exists within the Formula One paddock.
“The astonishing response from the teams and other paddock personnel was
immediate, unconditional and overwhelming.”
Further investigations into the cause of the fire, which is known to have
started in the fuel area, are on-going between the team, the FIA and local
authorities.