Alexander Albon said he did not put anyone at risk despite being penalised for leaving his Williams pit with his car in an unsafe condition.
The stewards gave the Williams driver a mandatory 10-second stop-and-go penalty after his team released him from his pit box with a loose front-right wheel. However after investigating whether Albon should have stopped immediately, they agreed he did not commit an infringement by driving his car back to the pits.“I didn’t feel the issue coming out of the pits,” Albon explained, “it was only when I took the pit limiter off and felt the vibration that I could tell something was wrong.
“I knew the tyre wasn’t going to fall off as it was only going to a certain point and would stop so it was still safe, but I understand why I got the penalty.”
The stewards said Albon was given his original penalty as the wheel was clearly loose when his car left the pit.
“Albon stopped for a tyre change, then had to return to the pits to change tyres again, having reported that the right front wheel was loose,” they explained. “The stewards observed that the front-right wheel gun mechanic made an attempt to tighten the tyre, but then had to try a second time, but by that point the car had left the pits.
“It was clear from the in-car footage that the tyre was loose, which constitutes releasing in an unsafe condition during a race. The 10 second stop-go penalty is mandatory under the regulations.”
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However after speaking to Albon they agreed he had not taken an unnecessary risk by continuing to drive instead of stopping.
“The stewards accepted Albon’s explanation, which was supported by in-car video, that while he knew something was wrong with the car, it did not look from his position to be a classic ‘loose wheel’, not captured by the wheel nut,” they stated.
“He was shown the green light by the team to exit the pits, and the team did not call him as they did not know at the time that the wheel was loose. Rather, Albon heard a metallic scraping noise, reported that something was wrong and drove the car carefully to the pits.
“The stewards agreed that this was accomplished in a safe and appropriate manner, without affecting any other competitor and that the driver did not drive the car knowing it to be in an unsafe condition.”
Albon did not receive any penalty points on his licence for the incident. He continued in the race but Williams chose to retire his car before the end.
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jenc (@jens)
19th May 2024, 21:34
Had in been Magnussen he would have gotten 25 penalty points for this…
Marcel
20th May 2024, 7:14
If there is 1 driver that has significantly less points on his license than he should have, it is Magnussen. If he got points for every penalty in Miami he would have been way over 12 already.
Grockle (@bennyh1)
20th May 2024, 7:21
As the Spanish commentators said at the time, if he and Williams had been more cryptic about the issue of the radio, calling it a vibration as opposed to a loose wheel they might have avoided the penalty.
Red Andy (@red-andy)
20th May 2024, 16:57
Not sure how to feel about this one. If we allow drivers to have a reckon about whether a loose wheel is going to fall off or not, what happens when they get it wrong? These incidents are usually punished harshly because they can be spectacularly dangerous.
The safest thing to do is to mandate that a driver must stop in a safe place immediately when they discover that a wheel isn’t properly fitted after a pit stop. Might seem harsh in a case like this one, but then the team should take more care to ensure the wheels are fitted correctly. In general the FIA has been quite soft on people driving in an unsafe condition in recent years (unless you’re Kevin Magnussen and you’ve damaged your front wing).
MacLeod (@macleod)
21st May 2024, 8:20
Albon was telling ‘if you kept it under a certain speed there was nothing wrong’ as the tyre was on but probaly not straight so when going a certain speed you get woobly when you get over it but the tyre was on. So doing 200mph with woobly tyre isn’t smart but slowly driving back is ok.