“The impact against the wall occurred at a fairly low speed, but it was the way in which I ended up against the wall of tires that was worrying. Normally we have plastic barriers, guard rails. But these, when I ended up against them , they stopped the car violently. That's why I'm worried. Not for me, but for the car, because that's the way damage is done.”
Alexander Albon spoke like this once he returned to the pits at Suzuka, following the accident on the first lap with Daniel Ricciardo which took him out of the race after a few hundred metres. And the Williams driver was right to be worried.
Once back in the pits, the mechanics of the Grove team inspected the damaged car, finding damage to the bodywork on the front-right side. This required the structure to be immediately sent to Grove because it will have to undergo repairs.
Daniel Ricciardo, RB F1 Team VCARB 01, Alex Albon, Williams FW46
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
The time to fix the damaged chassis of Albon's car should be enough to send the body back to China, ahead of the grand prix which will be held in two weeks on the Asian continent.
“I thought about our situation related to spare parts and our frames immediately, even before I ended up hitting the wall,” admitted the Thai. “This accident is exactly what we didn't need,” Albon said after the race.
To date, with the chassis damaged by Albon on the first lap of the Japanese Grand Prix, Williams only has one chassis available, the one – previously repaired after Albon's accident in Melbourne – which raced in the hands of Logan Sargeant.
The cars of Daniel Ricciardo, RB F1 Team VCARB 01, and Alex Albon, Williams FW46 after the first lap accident
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
According to what was stated by the Williams team principal, James Vowles, the spare body will not be ready before the Miami Grand Prix, the first event on the American continent which is set for early May. In the meantime at Grove they will have to make a virtue of necessity.
“The third chassis, at the moment, will not be with us at least until Miami. In short, in several weeks. In terms of the body, if you invest all your resources at your disposal, it can take 8-10 weeks to build it. To do the the first two, however, take longer because you have to get used to the creation process.”
“Clearly we don't have the entire organization working only on this, but we work on spare parts and upgrades at the same time, trying to get production volumes. In our specific case we never intended to be here without the spare chassis Our intention was to have him, of course.”
The cars of Daniel Ricciardo, RB F1 Team VCARB 01, and Alex Albon, Williams FW46, after the accident on the first lap
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
“The problem is due to system overload, the complexity of the car and the amount of work we were trying to carry out. In terms of complexity, it's enormous. The chassis is made up of thousands and thousands of pieces that you try to put together at the same time,” concluded Vowles, explaining his team's difficulties.
In short, it will be a race against time. On the previous occasion, that of the accident which also involved Albon, but in Melbourne, Williams carried out the first analysis thanks to an almost instantaneous evaluation system that can be done on site called NDT, or non-destructive testing.
This is an ideal solution to immediately understand what the damage is, what the extent is and how to work to repair it. The NDT system has already been used in that situation and the team should rely on it again to speed up the damage repair procedures and ship the chassis in time for the Chinese Grand Prix which is set for April 19-21.
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