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Williams F1 driver Alex Albon's collision with Visa Cash App RB driver Daniel Ricciardo damaged the former's chassis at the Japanese GP.
The Williams driver found himself in the wall for the second race weekend in a row. He had also crashed the FW46 at the Albert Park Circuit in the FP1 session a couple of weeks ago.
The Lap 1 incident between Ricciardo and Albon left both drivers in the wall at turn 3 and out of the race. This proved to be costly as Motorsport.com confirmed that Albon's chassis had been damaged and would be sent back to the UK for repairs.
The Grove-based outfit had earlier repaired the car's chassis, which had been previously driven by Logan Sargeant, in the weeks leading to the Japanese GP. Williams F1 team principal James Vowles spoke about the incident and said:
“Clearly, we don't have the whole organization just working on that, we're working at the same time on spares and updates, and trying to get the throughputs."
“It's an outcome from just an overload within the system, the complexity of this car, and the amount that we were trying to push through. In terms of the complexity of it, it’s enormous. The chassis is thousands and thousands of pieces that you're trying to bring together at the same time.”
Alex Albon chimes in on the damage to his chassis in Suzuka
Alex Albon stated that he hoped there wasn't too much damage to his car after going into the tire wall in turn 3.
Speaking with F1.com, the Williams driver said:
“Honestly it wasn’t like a big crash, but the way that I hit the wall… it was a tire wall, and we don’t have that many tire walls anymore in F1."
“The way the tire went under the car and it ripped the car, so the car went from a good amount of speed to zero very quickly, I’m just worried. I didn’t get a good look at it because it’s under the tires, but hopefully it’s okay.”
It will be interesting to see if the team at the factory can repair Alex Albon's chassis ahead of the Chinese Grand Prix weekend in a couple of weeks.
Williams would look to avoid crashes in the future as they work in the factory to build a spare chassis that will be used later in the season.
