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Williams' Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon have been disqualified from the Singapore GP qualifying. The duo's FW47s were found to have been infringing the rules surrounding the permissible DRS gap allowance, which led to their times being excluded from the qualification session.
For a second Grand Prix weekend running, the F1 sphere is slated to witness disqualifications associated with the rear wing not adhering to the technical regulations. First time it was Esteban Ocon after the qualifying for the Azerbaijan GP, and now it's the Williams duo.
However, the most infamous incident involving the DRS infringement goes back to Lewis Hamilton's disqualification from the qualifying of the 2021 Brazilian GP weekend. While he was able to make his way past the grid to win the race on Sunday, the same is hard to say for the Williams pair.
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FIA has strict allowances for the rear wing flexibility and for the DRS movable flap. The current limit is 85mm for the gap between the main plane of the rear wing and the upper plane after the DRS is activated.
However, the two cars were found to have a greater gap between the main plane and the upper plane, urging the FIA to take the matter to the stewards. This led to the disqualification of the concerned cars from the session, as they would line up on the last row of the grid for Sunday's race, unless either Carlos Sainz or Alex Albon (or both) don't opt for a pitlane start.
Carlos Sainz is hoping to continue his string of strong results at the Singapore GP
Carlos Sainz claimed his maiden podium with Williams at the Azerbaijan GP last time around. While a disqualification could spoil the mood within the team, the Gorve-based squad would like to put the setback behind them and focus on the race lined up ahead.
Though Sainz was not aware of the possible disqualification lined up ahead, he is aiming to take the FW47 up the road on Sunday at F1's fabled night race, as he said (via The Best F1):
"Since qualifying began, it seemed like we were going slower than the rest of the weekend. We had to change several things on the car that didn't seem to work and didn't help. Even so, it's very difficult to understand, and it's happened to us more than once this year, when we struggled more with the tires in qualifying than in free practice."
"Today, I didn't feel it was just the tires; I simply didn't have the rear-end grip, and that affected us, especially in the final sector. Yesterday, it was purple in free practice, and today it was difficult for us. Things will surely happen tomorrow. I'm going to try to make progress, and I'm sure we'll have a fast car tomorrow, but the key is to overtake, which is complicated, but we'll see if we can do something with our strategy."
Carlos Sainz sits 12th in the drivers' championship standings, a statistic that he would like to work upon in the final leg of the 2025 season.
