Another chassis damage caused by Alexander Albon in the Japanese GP could compromise the next race in China for Williams
Chassis is the word that best represents the team Williams at the start of the season, in fact, after Alexander Albon's accident at the start in Japanese GPthe Groove team now finds itself counting the damage. A shocking start championship for Williams after the sequence of accidents involving its two drivers Alexander Albon e Logan Sargeant between Melbourne and Suzuka. The Groove team now seriously risks arriving at the next Chinese GP in two weeks with just one single-seater. In fact, the English team had chosen to pass Sargeant's chassis to Albon after the Thai's accident in the Australian free practice, not letting the American run. But the impact Albon had in turn one in the Japanese GP they risk having delivered the final blow to the Williams season.
The American driver had heavily damaged the chassis of his FW46 during FP1, then giving up the second free practice session. While managing to take to the track the rest of the weekend, Sargeant had to revert to the old aerodynamic package as the team only had one set. The new updates, however, have gone in mostly destroyed after the collision between Albon and Ricciardo at the start of the Japanese race.
Japanese GP, Williams: how much damage!
Williams' disastrous start was just around the corner. The team in fact had only two frames ready for the first races of the season, now both damaged and sent to the headquarters for the necessary repairs. The damage count estimated by the team is around 2 million euros, including Albon's latest incident. Time is running out as the new components will have to be produced and placed on the two single-seaters by next Monday when we will travel to Shanghai. At Williams there is optimism about having both cars in China while waiting for the much desired third chassis which should be ready for Miami. Meanwhile, all this is causing a strong slowdown on the update front, as the team principal expressed himself in this regard James Vowles:
I suppose that for any team to have three serious accidents that have actually compromised the car's equipment is a huge damage, if we consider it over the course of the season it is manageable, but in the first races it becomes complicated. We are trying to prepare the new components quickly, but this will have a strong impact on performance and developments. We won't be able to update our cars too much during the season.
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