In the wake of Albon’s incident during FP1 at Melbourne’s Albert Park circuit, where the team lacked a spare chassis, Williams faced the challenge of operating with only one car from Saturday onward. The damaged FW46 had to be sent back to the UK for examination and repairs.
With the aim of optimizing their chances in the fiercely competitive midfield, Williams made the strategic decision to withdraw Sargeant from the event, allowing Albon to take his place in the American driver’s car.
Although the damaged monocoque has been restored in time for the Suzuka event this weekend, Williams anticipates not having a spare tub available until the Miami race in early May.
Given the time constraints associated with reinstalling both chassis to accommodate another driver change, Sargeant will continue to drive the repaired ex-Albon car this weekend.
Sargeant confirmed, “It’s the repaired one. Just because the workload to switch the cars back over would just be far too much for the mechanics. But the chassis repair went better than expected.”
Team principal James Vowles explained that the chassis damage was limited to a suspension insert, with no cracks in the tub, ensuring that drivers shouldn’t notice any difference between the two cars.
Reflecting on the incident in Melbourne, Sargeant revealed his immediate concern about Williams’ spare parts situation, stating, “I don’t think we really, at least I, hadn’t thought about it before that. If I’m honest, when I see Alex crash, the first thing that goes through my head is, ‘I know that we’re down on spares’.”
He added, “Of course, I was a little bit concerned for where we stood as a team. But it’s one of the hard parts that we’ve had to deal with through the start of this season – not having those big safety nets. It’s somewhere that as a team, we’re really trying to develop to be better and get more on top of that early in the season.”
While awaiting the completion of a spare car, Williams has not openly discussed how it would handle a similar incident in Japan. However, the absence of a standby car will not affect Sargeant’s approach to driving: “It’s, again, a situation that we had to deal with through the first three races.”
He emphasized, “We went to Saudi with the same situation. And of course, it’s one of those things that you have to be careful. But at the same time, you can’t be. It’s Formula 1. If you’re careful, you’re nowhere. So, it’s really not even a question – you have to be committed, confident and hope nothing goes wrong.”
Sargeant also acknowledged his understanding of the statistical reasoning behind the decision to bench him and enter Albon in Australia.
