Mahindra Racing have released a statement confirming that they’ve suffered “extensive damage to our trackside operations”, with only one car to be used when testing resumes at 1pm GMT at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo, Valencia.
The Banbury-based team’s garage was situated next to WAE’s (formerly Williams Advanced Engineering), where the fire took place. WAE’s garage blaze was caused by a battery which had been extracted from a DS Penske car on Tuesday, which was driven in the morning session by Robert Shwartzman. WAE supplies the Gen3 batteries and fast-chargers.
Due to the blaze, testing was cancelled on Tuesday afternoon, Wednesday and Thursday morning so that an investigation into the incident could take place. Following the conclusion of the investigation by the technical suppliers, testing has been allowed to resume on Thursday afternoon.
Mahindra are believed to be the only outfit impacted by the fire, as they’ve been forced to move garages due to damage to their equipment. It’s Nyck de Vries’ side of the garage which is believed to have been damaged in particular, with only Edoardo Mortara to complete on-track action in the first session since Tuesday morning.
Despite the damage to their equipment, Mahindra Racing Team Principal Frederic Bertrand has praised the Incident Response Team for their quick actions on Tuesday to minimise the extent of the damage. He also praised his side for managing to at least get Mortara’s car ready for action.
“First of all, I would like to extend my thanks to the Incident Response Team,” Bertrand stated. “Although we have sustained extensive damage to our trackside operations, without a doubt their quick actions helped to avoid a much larger incident.
“I would also like to express my gratitude to the FIA, Formula E and to each and every single one of our competitors. The support for Mahindra Racing at this difficult time has been unanimous and is a clear indication to me that we exist and compete as one family within the paddock.
“I am extremely proud of everyone at the Mahindra Racing team. It has taken a huge amount of time, effort, and dedication to get us to a position where we can resume testing with a single car in Valencia this week. Although this comes with some obvious sporting disadvantages, we are all looking forward to resuming our programme.”
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