The cause of the fire that ended Nick Percat’s Race 4 at the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix this afternoon is yet to be determined as the team works to get the Ford Mustang back out for the remaining races of the event.
The #2 Walkinshaw Andretti United entry was in 11th place on the opening lap after starting 17th when significant amounts of black smoke began streaming from under the bonnet with flames clearly visible from the left-front wheel arch of the car.
Quick thinking by Percat saw him bring the car to pit lane where the fire was extinguished, preventing the car being engulfed in flames.
It’s believed the fire stemmed from the failure of a controlled electrical component, but the team is still determining the precise cause of that failure as it works to get Percat’s Mustang back on track this weekend.
“Annoyingly, I got a good start and then under Safety Car, by the time I got to Turn 11, I thought I could see a little smoke in the car,” Percat told Speedcafe.com.
“I realised there was a lot of black smoke; between the third-to-last corner and second-last corner it just erupted.”
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Percat drove the smoking Mustang back to pit lane where Blanchard Racing Team and fire marshals were quick to put the fire out.
“The best thing about this category is the camaraderie between teams, especially when it comes to damage or fire – we always chip in, so, I just thought to myself – Hazelwood’s boom is the closest possible thing to me, where I know there’ll be extinguishers and ample amounts of them.”
The CoolDrive crew were on hand and required no additional motivation to stop the fire becoming worse.
“Obviously, not sure what happened to Nick, but as much as we compete we always help each other out,” Team Blanchard Racing manager, Tim Blanchard, told Speedcafe.com.
“When a car comes in on fire, there’s obviously a safety issue both for the driver and the crews in the close proximity to the issue – our guys, there was definitely no prompting required – the guys saw what was going on and jumped into action. By the time I realised what was going on, my guys had already put it out.”
Percat was involved in a dramatic fire at Townsville in 2019 when his Brad Jones Racing ZB Commodore was dramatically set ablaze in pit lane, and in that case it was Walkinshaw Andretti United coming to the aid, with Jones praising their quick thinking.
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