Alex Albon's chassis required repairs, with Williams team principal James Bolles admitting it would “absolutely” impact on upgrade plans.
Albon's crash in FP1 in Melbourne caused an estimated £500,000 worth of damage to the chassis and wiped out one car from the team for the rest of the weekend in Australia. In the era of F1's cost caps, money spent on repairs has to come from other areas.
Alex Albon crash will 'definitely' upgrade Williams
Vowles admitted it was “totally unacceptable” that the team did not have a third chassis available in Australia, but in parallel with Williams' continued infrastructure improvements, a second chassis would be available first in 2024. The priority was to focus on building a higher performance car.
Bolles explained that while repairs are underway at the team's Grove home base, the upgrade schedule will be affected by the damage sustained at Albert Park, with the team having limited spending for the year overall.
Asked by Melbourne media if Albon's impact would affect the team's upgrade plans, Bolles admitted: “Absolutely, it will.”
“No team in modern F1 wants to not have a third chassis.
“The last time I had it was in 2009.” [with Brawn GP]. This was the last time I couldn't own three machines. I was lucky that year. As a result of losing the car, he could have easily lost the championship. I don't think that's the intention.
“It is completely unacceptable that two cars are not fighting side by side on the track.
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“With what we're doing now. But the reason why this happened is because we're behind the curve in everything.
“As we move forward with processing systems and transformation, something is being pushed aside. In this case, it's the third chassis.
“So, with ongoing updates and other items planned, we have to keep this momentum going with the third car and redeploy all our employees to get this chassis in good shape. That also means that the chassis and updates will give us something – there's no doubt about that. ”
Work is already progressing at a rapid pace at Williams' base to repair Albon's car in time for next weekend's Japanese Grand Prix, with both cars likely returning to the Suzuka paddock, although Bolles is not completely sure. I believe it is highly possible.
“All I can say is, based on the evidence we have so far, the work could be completed overnight and everything looks completely feasible,” he said in Melbourne about the necessary repair work.
“I've seen chassis that have been in worse conditions recover from this situation. 100% is a difficult number, and as a statistician I won't say 100%, but it's a very high probability. I think it’s okay.”
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