Fire teams on pole for safe grand prix

Formula One pit crews have taken part in the first of a series of training sessions with West Midlands Fire Service in Smethwick.

The Force India team attended the fire service's Motorsport Fire Response Training course at the Learning and Development Centre in Dartmouth Road. Team manager for the brigade, Clive Williams, said: "This is the first of its kind and we are absolutely thrilled with its success. This course was never just about fire safety training – being a firefighter is about so much more than using a water hose."

The course was created to challenge and test the engineers' team-working skills, as well as teach them how to cope during a fire. During the two-day course, race team staff used a life size model car created by the Angle Ring Company in Tipton and learned how fires in the workshop and pit area could be prevented, and how to get someone out of the car quickly if a blaze does break out.

The trainees were divided into teams and had to design, develop and build their own car – including buying their own materials – before taking it for a drive on the test track.

Health and safety manager for Force India F1, Steve Martin, said one of the major dangers of a grand prix car on fire was acid leaking from tubes in and around the engine, so the course included instruction on how to use hexafluorine, which neutralises the acid.

The team's final test came when they had to don the full protective kit and face a real fire using the race car simulator.