F1 | Albon, possible irregular surface: he risks disqualification

Last year, the Dutch Grand Prix was one of the best for Williams, who managed to get both cars into Q3, then also taking an excellent eighth place and four crucial points for the fight in the constructors’ championship. This year too, a great performance was achieved in qualifying, thanks to the fourth row achieved by Alex Albon, while his teammate unfortunately could not take to the track in the official tests due to the accident during FP3.

Just this weekend, Williams introduced its second package of innovations of the season after the one that had debuted in Imola, although in that case great attention had been given to weight reduction. In this case the technicians at Grove intervened significantly on the aerodynamic level, revising a large part of the car.

The parts package included a revised floor which Williams said had been “completely updated” with a completely new and revised geometry. However, a technical inspection after today’s qualifying cast doubt on the legality of the new floor, which was only fitted to the British-Thai driver’s car. After Sargeant’s crash in FP3, the choice was to keep the spares for Albon, so that, in the event of a failure, he could have an additional unit even in parc fermé, where it is forbidden to change specification or be forced to start from the pit lane.

Albon qualified eighth, his best starting position of the season so far, but if his car is found in breach of the rules he could be disqualified from the session.

FIA technical delegate Jo Bauer said that “the floor shell was found outside the regulatory volume referred to in Article 3.5.1 (a)” of the technical regulations. The car body must comply with several dimensions that occupy two pages of the regulation”. In fact, at a regulatory level, the floor is divided into several components and, specifically, Williams seems to have violated the “V-FLOOR-BODY” component, that is, the lower one that does not include the most advanced deflectors to direct the exhaled air coming from the front tyres and some elements of the most external part.

Representatives from Williams have been summoned to meet with the stewards.

The last team to be found in breach of the technical regulations during qualifying was Haas in the Monaco Grand Prix due to the excessive opening of the DRS flap, beyond the 85mm limit. Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen were subsequently disqualified from the session and started the race from the back of the grid.