Alexander Albon says his Williams won’t be repaired in time for him to start the Brazilian Grand Prix.
He crashed heavily in Q3 during the Sunday morning qualifying session at Interlagos, causing extensive damage to his FW46.“It won’t be fixed,” said Albon, who is convinced he suffered a failure on his car when he crashed at the Senna S.
“I think we had an issue,” he told the official F1 channel. “I know we had an issue. We just need to go through it.
“Immediately when I hit the brake pedal, there was a beep in my ear, which normally means there’s a failure. And then rear locking and a big crash. So that’s us out for the race, unfortunately.”
Albon looked on course for a strong result until then, having set the second-fastest time until that point.
Williams suffered a double blow as Franco Colapinto crashed the other car earlier in the session, leaving them with two repair jobs to complete.
The difficulty of fixing cars in time for the race has been amplified by the fact qualifying was rescheduled to Sunday morning. It began at 7:30am local time and took one and three-quarter hours to complete due to five red flags for crashes.
Both Aston Martin drivers also crashed during the session, leaving them with an extensive repair job before the race. Ferrari also need to repair Carlos Sainz Jnr’s car following his crash in Q2.
The race is due to begin at 12:30pm local time. The starting time was brought forwards by 90 minutes yesterday due to concerns over the forecast for heavy rain at the track throughout the day.
However the possibility the race start could be delayed due to the impending rain may give teams extra time to complete repairs to their cars.
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Jere (@jerejj)
3rd November 2024, 13:10
So Williams will sacrifize Colapinto like they did to Sargeant in Melbourne.
Postreader
3rd November 2024, 13:13
You have to race in the car you qualify in. In Australia, Albon took over after FP2.
someone or something
3rd November 2024, 13:34
Also, Colapinto is not Sargeant. They (correctly) sacrificed Sargeant for Albon in Australia, because they had absolutely no faith in the former’s ability to score any points for them. Colapinto however has shown that he can perform on a very similar level to Albon’s. Even if it were allowed, there would be no reason for the team to sacrifice Colapinto.
Jere (@jerejj)
3rd November 2024, 13:40
Postreader someone or something
I was sarcastic.
SteveP
3rd November 2024, 14:17
The tone doesn’t carry through – maybe a bit more punctuation: ;)
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
3rd November 2024, 14:45
Yes, if it were me in such a case (one who doesn’t use emoticons) I would put a period sign if I were serious and an exclamation mark if I were sarcastic.
Simon
3rd November 2024, 20:30
LMAO (or something)
Ray West (@raynaud2211)
3rd November 2024, 13:16
It looked to me he touched the green stuff at the right side. Looked like a driver error but didn’t watched a good replay onboard.
PeteB (@peteb)
3rd November 2024, 13:25
Just watched it back and the car pulled to the right when he hit the brakes which put him on the green part.
Ray West (@raynaud2211)
3rd November 2024, 13:26
Ah that’s to bad for him. Had a cracking performance until the crash.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
3rd November 2024, 14:50
Yes, it’s a shame, such a great performance, I realised after how badly the car ended up after the crash and with how close the race was that it could be a super qualifying for nought; thankfully he ended up losing a few places with the last improving drivers and ended only 7th, which isn’t as much of a waste as 2nd place would’ve been, even though, had he not crashed, maybe he could’ve still fought for 3rd.
Carl Parker (@mysticarl)
3rd November 2024, 13:27
That was my take live too, he did seem quite close to the edge.
Feel really bad for the team, it was a very good opportunity to get some points. I hope all the teams do manage to get the cars fixed in time.
Jon
3rd November 2024, 13:32
Maybe we should have spare cars. So we have full grid for the race
Davethechicken
3rd November 2024, 13:56
Remember the days when they could run back to the pits and jump in the spare or even their teammates car?
SteveP
3rd November 2024, 14:07
Yeah, when both drivers pranged the car, there was a race on with both trying to be first back to jump in the spare.
Now that was an F1 Sprint.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
3rd November 2024, 14:46
Ahah, that’s a good one indeed!
t1redmonkey (@t1redmonkey)
3rd November 2024, 14:13
Yeah sure…sounds totally worth it in this day and age. Would probably have helped in about 2 GP’s in the last 7 or 8 years out of the hundreds that have taken place in that time.
PeterG
3rd November 2024, 14:47
This is why qualifying on a Sunday morning under normal circumstances is something that I always disagree with on the occasions it’s been brought up as a possibility.
It risks having drivers who have an accident or maybe technical issue in qualifying been unable to start the race if the car can’t be repaired and that isn’t good for anyone.