A Williams finally have a spare car available for the Miami GP this weekend, having been without it so far this season Formula 1.
As a consequence of production delays over the winter, the team entered the 2024 season without a third chassis ready for its drivers. Alex Albon It is Logan Sergeant.
It was a situation that revealed itself at the Australian GP, when Albon’s accident in training meant that his car could not be used again that weekend, and the team had to make the difficult decision to transfer him to take the racing machine. Sergeant.
The completion of the third chassis was not made easier by a series of crashes in recent races, but the team boss, James Vowlesrevealed that the situation has already been resolved.
Speaking on stage at the event in Miami, Vowles said: “What I can confirm is that despite all the big accidents we had at the start of the year, the third car is here and ready to go too.
“I hope it stays in a box for the next 18 races!”
Although Williams has taken a step forward with its FW46 car this year, the team is yet to score any points as a result of an increasingly tight fight at the back.
Vowles feels, however, that his team has not shown anywhere near the potential he feels exists, with progress not having been helped by a series of incidents.
“There are no other words to say this: there is potential, but we haven’t had any of it yet,” he said.
James Vowles, Team Principal, Williams Racing
Photo by: Motorsport Images
“We had a series of accidents that were quite big in the scheme of things.
“To describe what happened in Australia and Japan, we lost three floors, three front wings, three rear wings and we had three gearboxes completely destroyed. That’s usually what you lose in one year, not two races.
“As an F1 team, what we try to do is not build too many of one component, because when we do, we are continually trying to change throughout the year.
“We already have a new front suspension and we will have a new floor within two weeks. So you try not to build 10 of them, you build three or four of them.
“When you lose three of them, it just means that now you need to build three or four more as you try to build up your stock. And that set us back a little bit, I think it’s fair to say.”
Vowles believes that with Williams’ situation now more under control, that focus can now shift to bringing updates that will increase its speed.
“We didn’t bring performance when we should have brought performance, we were just trying to recover,” he said. “That’s behind us. Now that’s over.
“The start of the season was not what we wanted. But everything resets and we move on from now on.
“What I can say is that there was a lot of performance potential in this car and a lot more performance in the next five or six races. In each race we will start to bring performance now.”
