F1 | Williams: in Miami there is the spare chassis, now focus on the news

In Miami it’s finally the right time. After a period without a spare chassis and continuous postponements due to the accidents involving Alex Albon and Logan Sargeant between Australia and Japan, Williams presents itself in the United States with a spare chassis.

Due to delays accumulated over the winter, the team had arrived at the start of the 2024 season without a third chassis ready for its drivers Alex Albon and Logan Sargeant to exploit in the event of an accident. A situation that proved costly at the Australian GP, ​​when Logan Sargeant was forced to hand over his car to his teammate, who had damaged the chassis in a collision with the barriers in FP1.

At the time, handing over the American’s chassis to Albon, thus sidelining Sargeant for the rest of the weekend, was a much criticized move, but one that Williams deemed necessary to attempt to attack the points zone. The choice did not prove fruitful, because the Anglo-Thai finished outside the top 10. However, that accident, as well as the one on the first lap during the Grand Prix weekend in Suzuka, forced Williams to further slow down work on the creation of the new body.

Speaking on stage at a Williams Fan Zone event in Miami, Vowles confirmed that the team will finally be able to rely on the spare chassis: “I can confirm that, despite the serious accidents we had at the beginning of the year, the third car is here and it’s ready to be used. But I hope it stays in a garage for the next 18 races!”.

The reserve bodyshell was completed at the last second, so much so that, as explained by Albon himself, it had not yet arrived on the track when the drivers were dedicating themselves to interviews with the media on Thursday. A rather unusual fact considering that the teams tend to have all the material well in advance, but this is a sign that the necessary work, as well as the travel, went on until the last minute.

Although Williams has made a step forward with its FW46 this year, the team has yet to score points due to an increasingly close fight at the back. However, Vowles believes that his team has not demonstrated the potential of a renewed car in many aspects, starting with the driving dynamics, and that the accidents have undermined the chances of scoring points, given that it also proved necessary to create new stocks .

“There are no other words to say it: the potential is there, but we have not fully exploited it. We have encountered a series of accidents that have been quite serious. To quote what happened in Australia and Japan, we lost three bottoms, three front wings, three rear wings and we counted three completely destroyed gearboxes. That’s usually the amount you lose in a year, not two races,” Vowles said.

Logan Sargeant, Williams FW46

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

“As an F1 team, we try not to build too many components because, when you do that, you try to change them continuously throughout the year. We already have a new front suspension and in two weeks we will have a new bottom. So, the idea is to not to build 10, but to build three or four. When you lose three, it means you have to build three or four more to try to increase supplies, and that put us in a bit of trouble, I think it’s fair to say.”

Vowles believes that, with the parts situation more under control, attention can now shift to introducing updates that improve the car’s performance, giving drivers a hand in finding those results that have so far eluded them. The new single-seater, in fact, no longer has the same strengths as last season, but has proven to be more “global” in terms of characteristics: consistent on different tracks, but without having the peaks of 2023, those which allowed it to conquer so many points.

“In this first part of the season we weren’t focusing on performances, we were just trying to increase stocks. But this situation is now behind us. The start of the season was not up to our expectations. But everything is reset and we move forward.

“What I can say is that there is a lot of potential in this car and that there will be many more improvements in the next five or six races. With each race we will start to improve the performance.”