Williams team principal explained the situation regarding Logan Sargeant’s car after his crash in FP1, saying that the car was severely damaged but at least “the chassis is okay”.
The British outfit only raced with one car in Melbourne after Alexander Albon crashed, and his chassis was irreparable. Therefore, the team decided to bench Sargeant and give his car to the Thai driver.
Meanwhile, Williams fixed as best as it could the chassis of Albon’s car, which is being used by Sargeant this weekend. The team is struggling with spare parts in this part of the season, and a heavy crash wasn’t what the team needed.
“It’s pretty significant [the damage]. The chassis is okay, fortunately, but I would say pretty much everything else isn’t. So suspension all around, gearbox cracked, big damage.
“It’s going to be difficult. We’ll obviously do our utmost to try and get the car back out there again, but the damage is extensive. So it will take a while.”
Vowles also added that Williams won’t have a third chassis until Miami. He also underlined how difficult it is to get a new chassis ready with all the work the team needs to do with many other different things.
“The third chassis at the moment won’t be with us until Miami, a long way away,” he said. “In terms of the chassis, if you put all of your resources, everything you possibly had within the organization on it, it could be 8–10 weeks that you pretty much get a chassis done from freezer to something actually built and out there.
“And that’s by the time you get to a third chassis. It takes longer for the first ones as you get used to the process.
“Clearly, we don’t have the whole organization just working on that, we’re working at the same time on spares and updates, and trying to get them throughputs.
“In our particular case clearly we have never had the intention of being here without three chassis, the intention was to have three right at the beginning of the year.
“It’s an outcome from just an overload within the system, the complexity of this car, and the amount that we were trying to push through.
“In terms of the complexity of it, it’s enormous. The chassis is thousands and thousands of pieces that you’re trying to bring together at the same time.”