Williams has a tight deadline to repair Alexander Albon’s FW46 chassis before the next Japanese Grand Prix, but team principal James Vowles remains optimistic about the progress of the extensive repair work. In principle, the British team will again not have any spare chassis in that race.
With the Japanese GP fast approaching, Williams has turned all its attention to the difficult task of repairing the chassis of Albon’s single-seater. Despite the complexity of the repairs, Vowles was confident that the team is making significant progress and having two chassis ready for the Japanese round is “completely viable”.
“We will definitely have two chassis in Japan, but I don’t think a third chassis is possible, because the workload we have now due to this change will delay this process”, explained James Owles, quoted by the publication Speedcafe. “There is a finite amount of resources. We can put them in to ensure we have two cars built with the correct amount of spare parts in Japan or the additional chassis.”
The Williams manager also revealed the extent of the damage resulting from Alexander Albon’s accident. “The gearbox broke in two, the engine mounts were completely bent and the engine was basically destroyed. The chassis, on the front right, where the suspension comes in, is torn apart – that’s the best way to describe it. I can put my finger in the chassis, which shouldn’t be possible, just to clarify.”
Under way, said Vowles, are “four or five mitigation plans” for this problem, to have another chassis ready for Japan, with “teams working on the car from Monday [passada] to repair it.”
