F1 news: F1 team suffers spare part shortage ahead of Las Vegas GP

Nov 11, 2024

Williams recorded five big crashes in 10 days

Five big crashes in 10 days have Williams facing a conundrum ahead of Las Vegas as the team has yet to tally their remaining spare parts and could be forced to mix and match.

Williams have had a crash-strewn run in the last two races, Mexico and Brazil, with three crashes for Alex Albon and two for Franco Colapinto.

Albon crashed in the opening practice session for the Mexican Grand Prix after making contact with Oliver Bearman while two days later his race ended on the very first lap when he was hit by Yuki Tsunoda.

Fast forward seven days and both Williams drivers were in the barriers in Sunday morning’s qualifying for the Brazilian Grand Prix. Such was the damage to Albon’s car that he was withdrawn from the Grand Prix as the required repairs could not be completed in the time between qualifying and the race.

Williams were able to repair Colapinto’s car but it came to nought when the Argentinean crashed in the wet while the race was under Safety Car conditions.

The run of crashes has not only hit Williams’ pocket hard, but also their stock of spare parts.

👉 F1 2024: Head-to-head qualifying record between team-mates

👉 F1 2024: Head-to-head race statistics between team-mates

It had team boss James Vowles revealing they don’t yet know what specs either FW46 will feature at the Las Vegas Grand Prix.

“There’s no team on the grid that can cope with five major accidents in two race weekends,” Vowles said in his latest ‘Vowles Verdict’ on the Williams app. “Simply the matter of spares we carry are not sufficient to carry that amount of attrition.

“Vegas, I have high hopes for. We were fast there last year, and I’m confident the car will work well in those conditions.

“So we will do our absolute utmost to get two cars to the best specification they can be, with sufficient spares around us to make that happen.

“What that looks like is difficult to predict. We’re still getting the items back from Brazil and determining what we have to do in terms of construct and build in order to give ourselves the best possible scenario.”

But while Vowles says that in time the Brazilian Grand Prix, where Williams’ repair bill was over €2.2 million, will be nothing more than “blip”, right now it still hurts.

“The Brazil weekend was probably the most brutal that I can remember across my entire career,” he said. “In the space of seven days, a little more than, we had five major accidents.

“In Brazil alone between qualifying and the race, three. That’s an amount that near enough no one can sustain on the grid.

“This team is going through the process of rebuilding itself into a state where it can win races in the future. That doesn’t happen overnight.

“It doesn’t happen without significant change throughout an organisation, and this one race is simply just a blip in what is a grand scheme of a multi-year programme.

“It doesn’t mean it hurts any less. It’s something that hurts tremendously as I’m talking to you now.

“But I want us to be successful and performant. I came here not to be fighting for the odd point, but rather fighting for wins and more in the future. And that can’t be achieved without some level of compromise along the way, without rebuilding an organisation.

“So yes, it’s painful what happened, but it hasn’t changed what our destination is. In fact, it’s rooted me even further more to the fact of what we have to do to achieve it is significant, but we can achieve it together as a team.”

Leaving Brazil without a point while Alpine recorded a double podium, Williams dropped to ninth in the Constructors’ Championship where they are 27 points behind VCARB and 17 ahead of last-placed Sauber.

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