Williams pick up the pieces after garage fire

After the euphoria of winning the Spanish Grand Prix, followed by the panic of the fire that ripped through their pit lane garage area and then the relief that no one was critically hurt in the conflagration, Williams now have to pull themselves together and begin the task of rebuilding for the Monaco Grand Prix in ten days' time.

"Everything in our garage is totally destroyed," Williams team manager Dickie Stanford told Germany's Auto Motor und Sport publication. "Now I have to ensure that we have everything we need for Monte Carlo."

Post-fire photographs of the smoke-blackened area show the forlorn F1 monocoque used just hours earlier by Bruno Senna at the Circuit de Catalunya all on its own up on a stand in the middle of a stripped-out garage.

The monocoque itself looks very much worse for wear, although that could just be smoke damage and the unit itself might still conceivably be fundamentally sound and reusable. The team will transport it back to their factory at Grove and check it for any heat-related micro-fractures before deciding whether it is salvageable.

In any case, it's likely that the team already have spare chassis being prepared back at their headquarters just in case of race damage, which is just one of the facts of life in F1.

The same is not so true for the garage equipment which is expected to be safe and sound for the whole season in pit lane, including computer and IT equipment, various mechanical spare parts - and the refuelling rig, which is believed to have been at the heart of the flash fire on Sunday.

Williams' chief operations engineer Dr Mark Gillan has said that he was confident the team will be able to take part in the Monaco Grand Prix on May 27, although he conceded that the team might be lacking "a few of the extras" as they don't carry a full set of spares for every single piece of equipment used at a Grand Prix weekend.

He would be looking at the situation and taking stock over the next couple of days, he added.

The team has also received offers of loans of key equipment from its competitors in the F1 paddock, in the same impressive show of spirit that also saw team members from up and down pit lane grab fire extinguishers and sprint down to the Williams garage to help fight the fire when it broke out.

"The Williams F1 Team would like to thank all of the teams and the FIA for their support in today's incident," the team said last night in a formal statement regarding the fire.

Gillan himself had taken charge of making sure that Sir Frank Williams was immediately removed to a place of safety when the fire broke out in Barcelona, while the team's new technical director Mike Coughlin stayed in the garage searching on his hands and knees for any team member left behind.

Photos in Monday's newspapers showed Grand Prix winner Pastor Maldonado emerging from plumes of smoke carrying his 12-year-old cousin on his back, as the Maldonado family had been present with the team in Barcelona to share in the celebrations of his maiden race win.

Certainly anyone who was watching the television coverage when the fire broke out will know for sure today that courage and bravery in highly dangerous situations in F1 is by no means limited to the drivers out on track at 200mph: it's evidently in the DNA of everyone working in the sport.