Williams team principal James Vowles is confident Williams will fix Alexander Albon’s chassis for the upcoming Japanese Grand Prix.
Albon crashed during practice at the Australian Grand Prix, heavily damaging his car. As a result, he took teammate Logan Sargeant’s challenger for the remainder of the weekend, leaving the American out of the race, as the team didn’t have a third chassis available.
Speaking with the media after the race, Vowles said he was “confident we’ll be able to fix the chassis.”
“We put measures in place to make sure the chassis was back here [in Grove] very early on Monday morning, I think it arrived around 2 am. There were already crews inside the building, working on that, stripping it down and doing repairs.”
The team principal said Williams will have “the chassis back early enough for Suzuka.”
“Actually back in Melbourne, there were photographs and techniques called NDT, which is non-destructive testing. It allows us to fully understand how big the damage is, and what we have to do.
“And that preparation was key. What it means was already at 2 am on Monday, work could start. So, in Suzuka, we’ll have two cars without too many issues.”
Vowles explained that the team wanted to have a third chassis available by round one but that their plans were delayed – initially to round three, and then beyond China.
“With the work that we’re doing now on chassis number two, there is again going to be a small amount of delay,” he said.
“It is thousands of hours spent in composites in order to get it ready. It’s one of the biggest jobs within an F1 team.
“We will have a chassis soon. In the meantime, we have to deal with the circumstances we have in front of us.”