Williams had a bad turn in Australia, because it could participate in the Grand Prix with only one car. Team boss James Vowles now indicates that the British racing team will again compete in Japan with two chassis, which means that Alexander Albon and Logan Sargeant will have to be on their toes.
Normally, teams ensure that they have a spare chassis available for the first Grand Prix of the season, but this was not possible at Williams, partly due to the outdated systems used by the formerly strong team. This restriction did not cause any problems in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, but in Australia a crash by Albon meant that Williams could only use one driver. Sargeant became the victim of this.
Vowles chose to use his first driver, but Albon ultimately fell one second short of Kevin Magnussen’s tenth place. During the weekend it became clear that Williams could also only use one driver in Japan, but this risk now seems to have been averted. “I am confident we can repair the damaged chassis,” Vowles said in his weekend reflection on YouTube. ‘We made sure that the chassis was at the factory at two o’clock in the morning on Monday. It now looks good in terms of chances to be able to use the chassis again in Suzuka.’
Two more chassis in Japan
So Sargeant doesn’t seem to have to be on the sidelines again. “So we should be able to drive two cars in Suzuka without any problems,” says the Brit. However, a third chassis is still not available, and so the drivers know that they have to keep the car out of the walls on the difficult circuit, otherwise a repeat of Melbourne could follow. “The original plan was that we would have three chassis in the first race weekend, as you would expect.”
Vowles saw delays throwing a spanner in the works, and that delay has now only increased. ‘Taking the third chassis was postponed as we continued to experience delays, and with the work we now have to do on the second chassis there will be some further delays. We will have a chassis soon,” Vowles promises. “In the meantime, we have to live with the situation as it is.”
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