McLaren in rented 'accommodation' following Spanish fire

McLaren has been forced to rent a hospitality unit for this weekend's Austrian Grand Prix as repairs continue to its Team Hub that was damaged by fire over the Spanish Grand Prix weekend.

An electrical fault between floors is understood to have triggered the fire that forced an evacuation of the paddock building ahead of the final practice session at Barcelona's Circuit de Catalunya on Saturday.

Fire crews were swiftly on the scene to bring the incident under control. Aside from one McLaren team member who was taken to hospital as a precaution due to smoke inhalation, and later released, no one was harmed.

Over the remainder of the weekend, McLaren staff stripped down the building. However, the damage sustained in certain areas was too severe for it to be in place for this weekend's race at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg. The facility is now in Germany undergoing reparations.

That has resulted in McLaren turning to the Schuler Group, based in Germany, to lease its Performance Centre building it rents out to race teams.

Although considerably smaller than the Team Hub, it is ideal for McLaren's needs over the next few days due to the fewer number of hospitality guests.

Confirming its arrangements, a McLaren spokesperson said: "Due to the incident at the Spanish Grand Prix, we were unable to bring our Team Hub to Austria.

"We have secured an alternative smaller hospitality unit for the Austrian Grand Prix, which allows us to operate as required for this event."

Looking ahead to next weekend's British Grand Prix, they added: "We ideally hope to have the Team Hub in operation in Silverstone."