Williams are confident they will be back up to strength with two cars at next week's Japanese Grand Prix after having only one in Australia last Sunday due to crash damage, but they will still have no spare.
Logan Sargeant had to sit out the race in Melbourne after more experienced teammate Alex Albon, the effective No 1 driver, wrecked his car in practice and was then given the American's due to lack of a third chassis.
Team principal James Vowles said in a debrief posted on the www.williamsf1.com website both drivers would race at Suzuka.
“I'm confident we'll be able to fix the [damaged] chassis,” he said. “We put measures in place to make sure the chassis was back here [at the factory in England] early on Monday. I think it arrived at about 2am.”
Vowles said it was immediately stripped down and repairs carried out.
“In Suzuka we'll have two cars without too many issues,” he added.
“We won't have a spare chassis in Japan. The original plan before the season started was to have three chassis as you would expect at round one and that gently slipped towards round three as items became more and more delayed.
“Since then, and especially with the work we're doing now on chassis No 2, there is again going to be a small amount of delay. That said we will have a [third] chassis soon.”
Vowles said building a chassis was thousands of hours of work in the composites department and one of the biggest jobs in a Formula One team.
Williams, seventh overall in 2023 with Albon taking 27 of their 28 points, have yet to score in three races so far this season.
Vowles expected the bottom five teams to be in a tight battle through the season with the top five filling most of the points places.
He said prioritising Albon over Sargeant in Melbourne had been by far his hardest decision in Formula One but the correct one on performance.
“The whole world has seen where we are in reality and how far behind we are and what work we have to do to move forward,” he added of the Melbourne situation.
FORMULA ONE
Williams will have two cars but still no spare in Japan
Image: Reuters
Williams are confident they will be back up to strength with two cars at next week's Japanese Grand Prix after having only one in Australia last Sunday due to crash damage, but they will still have no spare.
Logan Sargeant had to sit out the race in Melbourne after more experienced teammate Alex Albon, the effective No 1 driver, wrecked his car in practice and was then given the American's due to lack of a third chassis.
Team principal James Vowles said in a debrief posted on the www.williamsf1.com website both drivers would race at Suzuka.
“I'm confident we'll be able to fix the [damaged] chassis,” he said. “We put measures in place to make sure the chassis was back here [at the factory in England] early on Monday. I think it arrived at about 2am.”
Vowles said it was immediately stripped down and repairs carried out.
“In Suzuka we'll have two cars without too many issues,” he added.
“We won't have a spare chassis in Japan. The original plan before the season started was to have three chassis as you would expect at round one and that gently slipped towards round three as items became more and more delayed.
“Since then, and especially with the work we're doing now on chassis No 2, there is again going to be a small amount of delay. That said we will have a [third] chassis soon.”
Vowles said building a chassis was thousands of hours of work in the composites department and one of the biggest jobs in a Formula One team.
Williams, seventh overall in 2023 with Albon taking 27 of their 28 points, have yet to score in three races so far this season.
Vowles expected the bottom five teams to be in a tight battle through the season with the top five filling most of the points places.
He said prioritising Albon over Sargeant in Melbourne had been by far his hardest decision in Formula One but the correct one on performance.
“The whole world has seen where we are in reality and how far behind we are and what work we have to do to move forward,” he added of the Melbourne situation.
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