Williams F1 team to seek compensation for damage suffered by track drain cover

The Williams Formula 1 team will seek financial compensation from race organizers of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix after a loose manhole cover caused significant damage to George Russell’s car during the opening practice session.

The excessive costs involved in going Grand Prix racing are well-known.

As a team with one of the lowest budgets in the paddock, deputy team principal Claire Williams has already confirmed that the team will be seeking financial compensation for the rebuild, which will include a new chassis and floor, among other things.

“Clearly, we’re going to have to be talking to them (the FIA) about that,” said Williams. “We’re an independent team, and we have a very strict budget to control and things like this, you can’t anticipate — nobody can, and I understand that, but there clearly should be some recompense.

“I know that there’s some precedent. Haas were compensated after it happened to them in Sepang a few years ago, so clearly we’ll be talking to them.”

Until any compensation is awarded, the team will be reaching deep into their collective pockets to find any loose change — Williams suggested that this was no cheap fix.

“At this stage, no,” said Williams. “I couldn’t tell you the exact numbers, but it’s not in the tens of thousands (of pounds sterling). It’s in the hundreds of thousands, but, more importantly I think, we’ve just got ourselves back on our feet, certainly from a manufacturing perspective, after not getting our chassis to testing on time and the pressure that put into the system. Now they’re obviously going to have this to deal with as well when we were just starting to get all of our upgrades pushed through the manufacturing process. It’s just really disappointing.”

The incident can be viewed here.

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