Kevin Hansen: 'Loeb fire was shocking – but we're committed to electric WRX'

We were all evacuated from the paddock and not permitted back until 6pm that evening. There was nothing we could do: we ordered takeaway pizzas for our mechanics and engineers and waited – and in terms of restarting the top WRX class, we are still waiting! We were in communication with the FIA so were immediately aware of the seriousness and the detail of the situation. The most important thing is that no one was hurt and that was quite honestly a miracle. On a positive side, the emergency services were active and efficient and for something like this to happen, the best place to be is at a race track where they are always prepared for dramatic situations.

The detail of what happened has been well documented – a battery fire in the awning of the Special ONE Racing as the Lancia Delta-based cars of Sébastien Loeb and Guerlain Chicherit were being prepared for the day ahead. The destruction to this new, young team was complete and everyone in the paddock was united in its sorrow for them. It is a tight-knit paddock and we all rallied around each other in the following hours. Even at this stage, I didn’t believe our race would be cancelled. We started the waiting game which is still on going as the battery manufacturer and the FIA work tirelessly to pinpoint the exact cause of this speedy reaction within the battery and ensure it can’t be repeated.

As we speak, I am travelling back from what should have been our sixth WRX event in Estering, Germany, but there has been no racing for us again. We have been active in the paddock with our Hansen RX2e team [the second tier electric WRX class] which has been good for morale. The final two events are the flyaways in Cape Town in six weeks – always a favourite in the paddock – and a brand-new event in a soon-to-be disclosed area of Hong Kong. It promises to be an incredible event and a ‘game changer’ for World RX. We will know more by the middle of this coming week. What we do know that is that we will not be able to freight the cars by sea and the use of aeroplanes will buy more decision time.

The priority is of course safety and being able to make judgements with all the information. We all want to race and the signs are good. After the bleak days of Covid and the excitement of getting back on the track last year and, of course, introducing the electric cars to this fantastic sport, we could never have predicted this situation. The positives are that it is giving everyone involved in the electrification of motor sport a wake-up call and a chance to delve as deeply as possible into the technology and offset the risks as much as possible.

Motor sport is dangerous, we all know that and we sign a waiver accordingly whenever we turn up at a track as either a spectator, worker, or driver. That said, when the reality confronts you in such a dramatic way it is still a shock. We have made the sport as safe as possible so any chinks in the armour still leave us all reeling. But no one was hurt, we are more knowledgeable about our power units and if all the stars align this week, we will be heading to Cape Town in a few weeks determined to get this fantastic show back on the road and really look ahead to a new era of World RX.