Williams: Drain cover failure 'not acceptable'

Williams deputy team principal Claire Williams says that the drain cover failure that put an end to the opening practice session in Baku is "not acceptable".

George Russell ran over the drain cover minutes into the session, after it was lifted by the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc moments before the impact.

The crash damaged the underside of Russell's car, which is a major worry for Williams who does not have a lot of spare parts available.

“The circuit needs to make sure that their drain covers are bolted down properly," Claire Williams said. "That’s just not acceptable.

"The damage that can do could put us out this afternoon. We have another chassis that we might need to bring in. And that’s not what Formula 1 tracks should be.

"I haven’t had a chat with George yet, he looks alright from what I can see. I think the car has got a lot of damage, though.”

Despite the heavy damage and lack of spare parts, Williams is confident that Russell will be able to run the remainder of the weekend.

“I think there’s inevitably going to be quite a lot of damage,” she admitted. “You can see from the TV that’s just taken the whole underside out. That is not helpful for us at the moment.”

Williams added that the team will inspect the car to see if the Grove squad will need to introduce its third chassis or not. 

"We’ll have to wait and see whether that chassis is repairable or whether we need to go to our third chassis. But clearly not what you want and clearly not what you expect from a Formula 1 track.

"You expect those manholes to be welded down. We’ll be picking that up with race control."