Williams, race against time for China. But the updates…

Repeated accidents

The next few days could be decisive for the future of the Williams team in this season. After the'incredible sequence of accidents which involved the two drivers – Alex Albon and Logan Sargeant – between Melbourne and Suzuka, the historic English team could really risk having to fly to Shanghaiin two weeks, with only one single-seater to field on the track. After choosing to pass Sargeant's surviving chassis to Albon during the Australian weekend, allowing only the Thai driver to run the race, the accidents at Suzuka risk giving the final blow to Williams' year.

Sargeant heavily damaged the car during FP1, causing so much damage that he was forced to miss afternoon practice while the mechanics completed repairs. While he was able to use the chassis again for the rest of the weekend, the American had to revert to an old-fashioned aerodynamic package as the team only had one set of upgrades available. Albon used these upgrades in Sunday's race, but most of them were destroyed in the first lap accident with Ricciardo. A disaster.

Updates pending

Now the team principal's stable James Vowles will face a race against time to produce the new parts in view of the Chinese trip. They have about a week to do so, as the cars will need to be ready for transport next Monday. The forecast is that in the end the team will be able to field both cars on the track for the Chinese GP, repairing the chassis damaged by Albon in Suzuka while waiting to have the long-awaited third chassis ready – perhaps for Miami. But What will be the cost of this effort? A significant slowdown in the production of updates.

“I think for any team to have three serious accidents that practically destroyed all the car's equipment is an enormity – commented Vowles to the official F1 website – if you consider it over the course of an entire season you can manage it , but having to do it in just a few races is difficult. The impact will be as expected. We are preparing spare parts as quickly as possible, but this will impact performance. We won't be able to make many updates anymore [più avanti nell’anno]“. A hard blow for a team that at the moment – in terms of performance – is in the scrum package with RB, Haas, Sauber and Alpine in the tight battle for positions from sixth to tenth.