‘Unsustainable’ run of damage leaves Williams uncertain of car spec for Las Vegas GP
Williams has admitted that the five major shunts from the last two Formula 1 race weekends has caused an ‘unsustainable’ run of damage to leave it short on spares.
The Grove-based squad has endured two bruising events in Mexico and Brazil, where drivers Alex Albon and Franco Colapinto both endured a run of heavy accidents.
Albon suffered a big crash in first practice in Mexico, after making contact with Oliver Bearman, while his race ended on the opening lap when he was tagged by RB’s Yuki Tsunoda.
In Brazil, Albon had a major crash in the wet qualifying session which put him out of the race because the damage he caused could not be repaired in time.
Colapinto also crashed in qualifying and, while the team could get his car fixed in time, he suffered another big accident in the wet race that brought out a red flag.
The run of incidents has burned through Williams’ spare parts and team principal James Vowles has admitted that it is now facing a race against time to work out what can be done to put it in the best possible shape for the Las Vegas race on the 23 November.
Franco Colapinto, Williams FW46, crashes out
Photo by: Andrew Ferraro / Motorsport Images
The team will not only need to ensure it has enough spares to get through the weekend, but also that it is running with its car in the best possible configuration of upgrades.
Speaking in his regular post-race review on the Williams App, Vowles said that work at the squad was still ongoing to finalise what shape it would be in for Las Vegas.
Asked about the spares situation in light of the crashes, Vowles said: “There’s no team on the grid that can cope with five major accidents in two race weekends.
“Simply the matter of spares we carry are not sufficient to carry that amount of attrition.
“Vegas, I have high hopes for. We were fast there last year, and I’m confident the car will work well in those conditions.
“So we will do our absolute utmost to get two cars to the best specification they can be, with sufficient spares around us to make that happen.
“What that looks like is difficult to predict. We’re still getting the items back from Brazil and determining what we have to do in terms of construct and build in order to give ourselves the best possible scenario.”
James Vowles, Team Principal, Williams Racing, in the the team representatives press conference
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Vowles said that what happened in Brazil in particular, especially because Albon’s Q3 crash had come after some impressive pace in the wet, was incredibly hard to take.
However, he reckoned the pain of all that happened – which included dropping down a constructors’ championship position because of Alpine’s double podium – had not changed his belief about what Williams could achieve in the future.
“The Brazil weekend was probably the most brutal that I can remember across my entire career,” he said.
“In the space of seven days, a little more than, we had five major accidents. That’s an amount that near enough no one can sustain on the grid.
“This team is going through the process of rebuilding itself into a state where it can win races in the future. That doesn’t happen overnight.
“It doesn’t happen without significant change throughout an organization, and this one race is simply just a blip in what is a grand scheme of a multi-year programme.
“It doesn’t mean it hurts any less. It’s something that hurts tremendously as I’m talking to you now.
“But I want us to be successful and performant. I came here not to be fighting for the odd point, but rather fighting for wins and more in the future. And that can’t be achieved without some level of compromise along the way, without rebuilding an organisation.
“So yes, it’s painful what happened last weekend, but it hasn’t changed what our destination is.
“In fact, it’s rooted me even further more to the fact of what we have to do to achieve it is significant, but we can achieve it together as a team.”
