Horner praises Williams' response to Spanish Grand Prix fire

Williams is still unsure of what caused fuel to ignite in its garage after the Spanish GP, but has openly briefed other teams on what factors it believes contributed and what action it is taking to ensure that there is no repeat in the future.

That openness has impressed Horner, whose own outfit has made some procedural changes as well in light of the Williams fire.

"Williams have been tremendously good in being open with some of the lessons that they have learned," explained Horner. "It was quite scary how easy an incident like that can happen.

"What has been great is that they have been totally open and transparent in their findings and, as a result of that, the whole pit lane can learn something from that.

"We have made some slight amendments to our procedures, just tightening them up a little to be a bit more prudent, but the way the information has been shared has been very commendable."

Horner said that his team had been fortunate never to experience such a fire at an event - but said the very fact it happened to a rival shows that no outfit can be complacent on safety in the garages.

"We had a KERS battery go into a thermal runaway in the factory once, which was nowhere near as dramatic as that [Williams fire], but it demonstrates that it is a dangerous environment when you have fuel, fuel vapour and static electricity.

"It served as an important reminder to everybody that safety remains a crucial factor and thankfully nobody was seriously hurt. You cannot afford to be complacent with any of these things."