The Williams chassis saga continues this weekend in Japan. If you missed the race in Australia, here’s a quick recap of the controversial decision made by Williams.
During free practice 1, Alex Albon crashed into the wall, leaving the car beyond repair. Due to sacrifices made to further advance the team, Williams does not have a spare chassis, meaning only one car could drive in Australia. James Vowles made the hard call and decided to swap the cars, letting the Thai drive Logan Sargeant’s car, resulting in the American sitting out qualifying and the race.
This decision did not go down well with fans, and it left many people upset. To make it worse, Alex Albon did not end up scoring points during the race, so many believed the swap was useless.
Team principal James Vowles said the chassis would be repaired by Japan and there should be no issues. It was announced during Thursday’s media day at Suzuka that Sargeant will be using Albon’s repaired chassis this weekend.
A lot of Albon’s car components like his seat, engine, etc. are still attached to Sargeant’s car. Removing the components and switching them back to his car would take time, resources, and energy, which Williams need to be putting into finishing their spare chassis.
“It’s the repaired one just because the workload to switch the cars back over would be far too much for the mechanics.
“But the chassis repair went better than expected, so it should be perfectly normal as far as I’m aware,” Sargeant said.
Asked how much more weight the repaired chassis is, Sargeant said, “I believe it’s only 100 grams heavier, so pretty much nothing.”
Right now, Williams is on thin ice. Both drivers said the team will not have a spare chassis until the Miami Grand Prix, meaning the next two races will be very critical for them. All it takes is one slip, one big crunch with the wall, and the team will be in the same position. With no spare chassis and one newly repaired chassis, they don’t have any room to make mistakes.
For the 23-year-old, that is not something he will be thinking about when he hits the track.
“It’s, again, a situation that we had to deal with through the first three races. We went to Saudi with the same situation. And of course, it’s one of those things that you have to be careful. But at the same time, you can’t be. It’s Formula 1.
“If you’re careful, you’re nowhere. So, it’s really not even a question – you have to be committed, confident and hope nothing goes wrong.”
These next couple of events will be a huge test for the drivers as well as the team. Will they sink or swim? We’ll find out.
