Logan Sargeant sacrificed by Williams as Alex Albon takes over his Williams F1 car

Williams F1 driver Alex Albon will take over teammate Logan Sargeant's car for the rest of the F1 Australian Grand Prix weekend amidst his massive crash in the FP1 session.

The Thai driver went wide heading into Turn 6 and clipped the wall in Turn 7 after his FW45 bottomed out on the Albert Park Circuit. The damage to his 2024 challenger meant that he had to sit out the remainder of the FP1 session and the entire FP2 session due to repairs.

Williams F1 team has now announced that Alex Albon will drive teammate Logan Sargeant's car. Williams did not bring a spare chassis to the Australian Grand Prix. Unfortunately, this means Logan Sargeant's weekend down under has been cut short.

Speaking with Motorsport.com, Williams F1 team principal James Vowles said:

"One point here will make the difference between sixth and 10th potentially in the championship, simple as that. It just depends. I want to see how FP2 is, I want to see how the car performs. I want to see what options we have available to us on the chassis here as well."

The former Mercedes man also spoke about the team's calculated risk of not bringing a spare chassis to the race, adding:

"We have been very open and transparent that we were pushing everything to the absolute limit across the winter to get where we are, and sacrifices had to be made. And one of the sacrifices, which is a risk that you take, is you bring a spare hopefully to round about round three. It pushed just away from that."

Williams team boss chimes in on the damage to Alex Albon's car

James Vowles stated that it was a "fairly big accident" for Alex Albon in the FP1 session, with many major components such as the engine and chassis being damaged. Thankfully, Albon is doing fine after the crash.

As quoted by the aforementioned source, Vowles said:

“It was a fairly big accident. The engine is damaged, the gearbox is split in two, and the chassis is damaged. It's the worst you could have ever had. We do not have a third chassis here, that's correct. So now it's just whether we can repair this one."

It will be fascinating to see if how the former Red Bull driver performs given the sacrifice of Logan Sargeant. Can Alex Albon make the best of scoring points in Melbourne?