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Williams F1 driver Alex Albon would sit out the FP2 session due to his massive crash in the first practice that saw him damage his chassis at the 2024 F1 Australian GP on Friday morning.
The Thai driver came into the weekend with high expectations as he and the team believed that the Albert Park Circuit could be one of the strongest tracks of the season. However, their weekend got off the worst possible start as Albon crashed into the wall in Turn 7 after bottoming out.
The crash meant that he would miss out on the all-important FP2 session owing to the damage with his teammate Logan Sargeant being the lone Williams driver on the track.
Alex Albon, who turns 28 on Saturday, was apologetic about the crash to his team on the radio. Incidentally, he went off at the same corner during last year's race while he was running in Top-6.
Speaking about the crash to the media, Williams F1 team boss James Vowles spoke about the damage to the car and said (via Autosport):
“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.
"We have repair kits, fundamentally of those I'm not yet sure, because it's a very serious accident and with what happened on the front [right] corner.”
Williams F1 team boss chimes in on a potential driver swap post Alex Albon's crash
James Vowles stated that he would evaluate all possible options regarding the weekend after the FP2 session as the team could order Alex Albon to take over Logan Sargeant's FW45 for the Australian Grand Prix.
As quoted by the aforementioned source, the Williams F1 team principal pointed out the importance of scoring a single point and reflected:
"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 driver swap could be a real possibility as the Grove-based outfit hadn't brought a spare chassis to the track and could make the change if they are unable to fix Alex Albon's car for the FP3 session.
