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Damage caused by a storm on Wednesday in Budapest has rendered the McLaren Team Hub largely unusable for the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Heavy rain and strong winds battered the area, flooding parts of the Hungaroring circuit.
During the storm, the roof of the McLaren hospitality unit was damaged such that the facility cannot be used by guests or media for the balance of the event.
“On Wednesday afternoon, during set-up for the Hungarian Grand Prix, the team was hit with an unexpected weather event which has impacted the McLaren Team Hub,” McLaren announced in a statement.
“The team are currently working to fix the damage and therefore unfortunately our Team Hub will not be open to any guests or media for the duration of the Hungarian GP.”
It’s the second time in four races McLaren has been forced to make alternate arrangements after a fire broke out in the ceiling over the Spanish Grand Prix weekend.
There, rivals came to the aid of the team, offering hospitality to guests and crew after one team member was taken to hospital – but was quickly cleared and released.
This weekend, the situation is less precarious and Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri are able to continue using their driver rooms on the lower level of the structure.
“In McLaren, we have two smaller rooms,” Piastri explained of the impact on his preparations.
“So the downstairs one, most importantly, the one with the air conditioning, is good. So for this weekend, we’re sweet.
“The upstairs one, I can’t use.”
In Monaco, the construction of the Team Hub was delayed, rendering it unavailable on Friday as crew worked to add the fascia to the front of the structure.
Just under a month later, and at the next event the facility was used, a fire broke out.
Piastri joked that, on that occasion in Spain, it coincided with a strong on-track performance.
“The last time our motorhome, well it caught fire last time, I think Lando put it on pole,” he observed, tongue firmly in cheek.
“I don’t know, maybe it’s good! Obviously not, but it doesn’t change much.
“We’ve unfortunately got the experience of having to rearrange things a little bit, so we’ll be fine for the weekend.
“I don’t know if this motorhome we’ve got is now a bad omen and just, I don’t know if it’s a sign that we need a new one or what, but no, we’ll be fine.”
Conditions are forecast to remain hot and largely dry for the remainder of the weekend, with temperatures remaining above 30 degrees during the day.
A chance of rain does exist on Saturday night, rising to 24 percent at 20:00 local time.
