Alex Albon says Williams suffered a “self-fulfilling harm” with the early season timesaving however weight-adding measures on its 2024 Method 1 automotive, which led to extra crash injury.
The British group’s 2024 season was blighted by crashes from begin to end, with its FW46 automotive additionally beginning the yr over the load restrict of 798kg to the extent it was shedding 0.45 seconds a lap, earlier than it was lightened by way of its growth programme.
Partly, this was because of the preliminary iterations of sure chassis elements – corresponding to suspension components – being comprised of steel as a substitute of lighter carbon-fibre.
This was deemed needed as a result of Williams modified its automotive construct course of for the yr simply gone, which meant components arrived a lot later, because it strived to modernise its manufacturing system.
Metallic components are faster to supply than these in carbon, with Williams additionally making an attempt to make its automotive lighter general anyway.
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It managed to shed 14kg from its complete chassis weight in comparison with 2023, whereas nonetheless being over the restrict.
However the added weight of steel components meant extra pressure going via a monocoque in a crash, corresponding to when Williams was compelled to sideline Logan Sargeant after Albon crashed in Australian Grand Prix apply, his chassis was too broken for use once more and the group didn’t have a spare on the time.
Albon revealed the scenario when requested if there was any explicit trigger for the various crashes he, Franco Colapinto and Sargeant had within the season simply gone.
“There is a combine,” Albon instructed Motorsport.com in an unique interview. “There’s a mixture of driver errors, there’s a mixture of points.
“I wouldn’t name them points across the automotive however, for instance, like Brazil [where Albon crashed in the wet Q3], there are issues the place in a technical viewpoint, it is type of a driver downside, however it’s not likely.
“It is simply techniques that have been… we modified and areas the place they have been simply type of very laborious.
“Collectively, we might have finished a greater job and I believe we might have been in a position to keep away from it. So, there is a little bit of that happening.
Logan Sargeant, Williams FW46, will get out of the automotive after crashing out of the race
Photograph by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Pictures
“There’s additionally simply, even in the event you take the beginning of the yr, for instance, we went via fairly just a few tubs. I believe Melbourne was one. Suzuka was one.
“However, really, in the event you have a look at it, a part of the issue is throughout the weight [issue] itself.
“We had some items on the automotive that have been metallic relatively than carbon. So, they really have been creating a number of the damaged tubs.
“So, it was nearly like a self-fulfilling harm that we had. So, there’s stuff like that, which from race one [meant] we have been on the again foot.”
When Motorsport.com put Albon’s level to Williams’s chief engineer Dave Robson, he replied: “Sure, that’s true to some extent.
“Undecided whether or not that trigger and impact assertion is precisely proper, however we undoubtedly had some metallic elements on the automotive that are actually all carbon and may have been carbon from the outset.
“And that undoubtedly does change the load that goes via the chassis, so these are the entrance suspension components.
“The rationale for doing that’s you’ll be able to design say a metallic trackrod rather more shortly and machine them rather more shortly than you may make carbon elements.
“So, when you get behind, that is a means of recovering a number of the time. You pay a small mass penalty for the element itself if it is one thing like a trackrod.
“They have been on the automotive for some time after which we quickly up to date these and undoubtedly in the event you try this [for] a number of the entrance suspension elements and then you definitely endure a heavy affect, a great deal of the chassis are a bit completely different so yeah it in all probability did contribute to a number of the preliminary points.”
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Alex Kalinauckas
Method 1
Alex Albon
Williams
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