“Several hundred thousand pounds”– McLaren boss Andreas Seidl quotes the amount McLaren will have to spend to cover damages.
The Belgian Grand Prix was havoc for Formula 1, as the rain didn’t stop for a bit on both Saturday and Sunday, in the end, cancelling the full-length race.
Personally, Lando Norris didn’t have a pleasant Belgian Grand Prix, as he suffered a major crash, and Sebastian Vettel personally had to check up on his safety, such was the magnitude of the crash.
The crash happened at Eau Rouge, which has become infamous for fatal crashes, and as usual, it also severely damaged Norris’ car. With this, McLaren’s boss has revealed the amount his team had to spend to cover the damages ahead of the Dutch GP.
“I would say several hundred thousand pounds in the end, collectively,” Seidl said. “But thanks to the preparation beforehand, from these crashes, and the great work back home in the factory in production in the last weeks, we are still in a healthy position when it comes to spare parts as well.”
Though the source quotes that the amount they have to spend is certainly less than the £1.5million worth of damage Red Bull obtained from Max Verstappen’s crash in Silverstone.
McLaren can reuse power unit
One of the positives for McLaren after the crash is that Norris can use his power unit from Belgium, as the angle of impact saved the engine and can be used in future.
“It’s still open when to use it again,” added Seidl. “The power unit has been checked in detail and looks to be okay, and will be used at one of the next race weekends.”
“Everything so far looks good, but as always, in the end, you only get the final green light once you have reinstalled the unit again and go back on track. But with everything our colleagues from HPP have checked, we don’t expect any issues.”
“For sure,” said Seidl. “We were lucky, in terms of the angle of the initial impact, that it was not that bad. That’s why we could keep the monocoque and also the damage to the power unit was not as bad as it looked when the crash happened.”
“That’s also the reason why Lando could walk away in the end without any serious issues.”
