Logan Sargeant did not expect to fly to Australia and not race in the Grand Prix. But such have been the circumstances at Williams after Alex Albon’s heavy crash in FP1 on Friday. It damaged his chassis badly and the Grove-based team had to make a tough call, as Albon’s car was beyond repair at the track. Williams decided to hand Sargeant’s car to his more experienced teammate, which meant the American driver has to sit out the rest of the Australian GP weekend. Defending champion Max Verstappen has commented on this situation, showing some empathy for Sargeant. But at the same time, the Dutchman said that he would fly home if this happened to him.
According to the Dutch website ad.nl, Verstappen said, “I understand it from the performance aspect, of course, but that doesn’t change the fact that this obviously sucks for Logan. Of course I’m not in that position, but then I would already be on the plane home. If that were to happen to me, I would completely flatten mine too, no one can drive.”
The Red Bull driver was quite spontaneous and quirky in presenting a solution for Sargeant, who is still in Melbourne supporting his team in the garage. Williams are only running one car in the race that Albon is driving and has qualified P12 for the race on Sunday.
Verstappen, who took pole at Albert Park, echoed another quirky and hilarious tweet that Ryanair made on X, with his flying home response. The $33 billion airline posted a made-up ticket for Sargeant that took a jibe at his current situation, having no car and having nothing to do for the rest of the race weekend in Australia. The airline has since deleted the post.
Will Williams take steps to avoid another similar situation for Logan Sargeant and Alex Albon?
Williams had to opt to field only one car in Australia due to the unavailability of a spare chassis. Usually, F1 teams always bring a spare chassis and other key components such as power units and gearboxes just in case some accidents happen. Unfortunately, Williams did not do so, due to an inefficiency in production at their factory.
The Grove-based team were already behind schedule in the production of the FW46 and completed their car just a day before pre-season testing this year. Their team boss James Vowles stressed that amid this delay and inefficiency, they were not able to plan for a spare chassis and the situation caught them out in Melbourne.
Williams are shorthanded with several processes in their production and car development not being up to the mark. One of them was the use of Microsoft Excel to track car parts. However, Vowles has guaranteed that they are sorting these issues out to avoid similar mistakes again.
For the Japanese GP too, the team is in a race against time to repair Albon’s car. Even his engine and gearbox have suffered significant damage. While those can be replaced with newer ones, the chassis needs repairs. Vowles cited that they have to modify their upgrade plans and the building of a spare chassis too, due to the extensive repair work for Albon’s car.
