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Claire Williams reacts to the George Russell incident

11:49, 26 Apr 2019

byLouis Shaw

Claire Williams is not happy with the FP1 incident which saw George Russell running over a loose drain hole cover. The Deputy Principal reveals that the incident has caused a lot of damage to the car and that it is not what you expect from a Formula 1 circuit.

The drain covers are meant to be welded down to stop incidents like this and FP1 was cancelled as the marshalls then had to check all 300 of the covers to ensure that they are safe.

“I haven’t had a chat with George yet, he looks alright from what I can see,” Williams told the BBC. “I think the car has got a lot of damage, though.”

“I think there’s inevitably going to be quite a lot of damage,” she said. “You can see from the TV that’s just taken the whole underside out. That is not helpful for us at the moment.”

“The circuit needs to make sure that their drain covers are bolted down properly. That’s just not acceptable. The damage that can do could put us out this afternoon. We have another chassis that we might need to bring in. And that’s not what Formula 1 tracks should be.”

Of all the Formula 1 teams Williams are the one that could really have done without this. They will hope that they can build a car in time for FP2 later on today but it just adds to the issues the team has had so far this season.