Williams has been struggling with the availability of parts throughout their 2024 Formula 1 season.
This was highlighted during the Australian Grand Prix when Alex Albon had to drive Logan Sargeant’s car after a chassis-damaging crash.
The scarcity of spares and the impact of the cost cap have been heightened by five significant crashes in the last two races.
Williams admitted this “unsustainable” damage is putting immense pressure on the team, especially as they face a triple-header.
Team Principal James Vowles stated that the team is in “a race against time” to optimise their car spec for them.
Vowles emphasised the importance of ensuring both cars are in the “best possible shape,” with sufficient spares to withstand further race attrition.
Albon crashed big time in practice in Mexico, and a smaller one in the race. A huge one came in Brazil during qualifying, leading to a DNS.
Colapinto had a huge shunt in the race at Interlagos. He had also binned it during qualifying.
“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.”
He affirmed that the Brazil weekend took a toll on Williams after Albon’s major crash in Q3 that left him out of the race.
As well as that, they dropped a position in the Constructors’ Championship following Alpine‘s double podium finishing position.
“The Brazil weekend was probably the most brutal that I can remember across my entire career.
“In the space of seven days, a little more than, we had five major accidents. In Brazil alone between qualifying the race three.
“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 organisation, 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.
Despite the recent setbacks, Vowles remains determined that Williams is in a great spot for their long-term goals.
“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.”
