Williams’ team is celebrating a significant off-track victory ahead of the Grand Prix. The long-awaited reserve chassis for the FW46 of Williams has finally arrived.
Due to production delays, the British team, led by Alexander Albon and Logan Sargeant, did not have a third chassis for the first few races. This caused significant problems, especially after Albon’s crash in FP1 Melbourne, which forced Sargeant to give up his car. Damage was also incurred in Japan.
James Vowles, the team boss of Williams, confirmed during a Williams fan event on Friday that the third chassis is ready for action. “I just hope it stays in the box for the next eighteen races,” Vowles added.
‘That’s a loss you’d normally see in a year’
Williams is still waiting for its first points finish this season. Vowles commented, “There’s potential, but we haven’t realized any of it. We’ve had a few accidents with quite a significant impact. To give an overview of what happened in Australia and Japan: we lost three floors, three front wings, three rear wings, and three gearboxes. That’s a loss you’d normally see in a year, not in two races.”
Now that the situation with Williams’ third chassis has been resolved, Vowles acknowledges that resources can now be deployed for performance upgrades. “We haven’t delivered performances when we should have, we were just trying to replenish the stock. That’s behind us now. The start of the season wasn’t where we wanted to be. But everything is being reset and from now on, we’re moving forward.”
