Seven members of the Caterham Formula 1 team had to be taken to hospital after a factory fire.
The fire, in the machine shop of the outfit’s Leafield base, broke out at around 22:45 BST on Wednesday.
Staff affected by the blaze were taken to hospitals in Oxford and Swindon for medical checks after they inhaled smoke. Six of the seven personnel have since been discharged, while one remains under observation.
“It happened in our pattern machine shop and was out very quickly but it did create quite a bit of smoke,” read a statement published by the Caterham team on social networking website Twitter. “Seven staff members were taken to hospital to be checked, six were released soon after and one kept in for observation, but he’s OK.”
The team added that the machinery was operational again “within hours” and steps have been taken to avoid a repeat, while parts from the affected machine shop are still due to be used at next week’s post-race Bahrain test.
