McLaren hospitality in Hungary closed again

McLaren’s F1 motorhome seems to be cursed for 2024. After the fire, a storm in Hungary blew the roof off. The facility is a restricted area for the rest of the weekend.

Markus Steinrisser

Markus Steinrisser

Formula 1 Department

In the F1 team since 2018. The man for the text. Nothing is better than action on and off the track, fused into a big feature.MORE

Storm damage at McLaren Hospitality
In Hungary, the McLaren motorhome is broken again, Photo: Motorsport-Magazin.com

For the second time this season, McLaren had to vacate its Formula 1 motorhome. Memories of the fire in Barcelona on Friday are still fresh, and the hospitality facility has only been in use again since one Grand Prix – and it is already broken again. On the Wednesday before the Hungarian GP, ​​a storm left behind severe damage.

In extreme summer heat – Formula 1 is expecting air temperatures above 30 degrees Celsius for the entire weekend in Budapest – a sudden, severe storm struck on Wednesday afternoon. The McLaren team hub, which had already been set up at the time, was hit hard and the roof was torn off.

PICTURES: Formula 1 Thursday in Hungary

Storm damage at McLaren: Again no room for guests & media

On Thursday, the upper floor of the facility had to be dismantled again. The team is working feverishly to complete the repairs as quickly as possible. However, on Thursday morning, McLaren confirmed in a brief statement that the motorhome would only be accessible to team personnel for the rest of the weekend.

Once again, guests and media representatives have to be relocated. For McLaren, this will be the third weekend this season without hospitality. In Barcelona, ​​the facility had to be completely evacuated after a fire in the kitchen area on Friday afternoon and relocated to other teams and FIA facilities.

Because of the fire damage, the motorhome was completely missing on the following weekend in Austria, and the team only had a small, improvised emergency system at the start. McLaren does not have a replacement motorhome. It was only two weeks ago in Silverstone that it was ready for use again.

In general, McLaren seems to be cursed in 2024. In fact, the series of problems began on the Monaco weekend, when the construction work was delayed and was only completed shortly before the start of the weekend. The team has therefore already had problems in four of the 13 races.

At least there were no injuries. During the fire in Spain, several people had to be checked in hospital as a precautionary measure, but even there everything turned out well. McLaren thanked the paddock in Silverstone for their support in extinguishing the fire and for providing space afterwards with special biscuits.

Cookies from McLaren
McLaren’s thank you cookies, photo: Motorsport-Magazin.com

© Motorsport Magazine

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