The penultimate race of the 2024 season at the Lusail International Circuit was turning out to be a run-of-the-mill affair before Alex Albon’s FW46 decided to take things into its own hands. The Qatar GP was turned on its head when the British-Thai driver’s wing mirror broke off and became stranded on the main straight — probably giving the likes of Carlos Sainz and Lewis Hamilton a puncture.
Speaking about the incident after the race, Albon described the moment he realized that he had lost his mirror. “I noticed it when I looked into turn 1,” said the #23 driver on Williams’ Team Torque podcast.
“My visibility was amazing! Like I could see the whole corner. And I thought, ‘Something’s not right’. Normally, you can’t see the exit because your mirror is in the way. Because I could see everything. I could see turn 2,” he added.
they asked him about the mirror and he said he was in the back of the field so there wasn’t much use for it anyway pic.twitter.com/8n9h94j9Ja
— alex albon’s pr manager (@leclercize) December 2, 2024
In the end, his broken wing mirror did not do much good for Albon. He finished the race a lap down in 15th (effectively last as the others had DNFed in the race). Moreover, given how the last few Grands Prix had gone for the Williams team, the loss of a wing mirror was yet another entry in the expenses list.
Williams have to sacrifice 2025 owing to 2024 damages
Williams ended up having the biggest repair bill out of any team on the grid this year. This has hampered their chances going into 2025 seriously. In the cost-cap era along with the fact that the Grove-based team has a limited budget anyway, the team will have to sacrifice a lot next season to ensure they hit the ground running in 2026.
Moreover, after finishing P7 in the Constructors’ standings last year, Williams took a tumble for the worse this season. After the Abu Dhabi GP, the team finished the year ninth in the standings — just above an ailing Sauber team.
Going into 2025, the team have Carlos Sainz coming into the fold. While he would have seen the progress the team made in 2023 as a benchmark, he will have to recalibrate to the current realities of the iconic British team.
