In the commencing lap of the race, Daniel Ricciardo of the RB team, failing to secure a good start, ended up colliding with Albon in Turn 3, at the onset of the Esses. The two cars were slightly knocked, resulting in them landing into the tyre barriers. Consequently, there was a necessary repair of the tyre barriers which incured a 30-minute interruption due to the red flag.
The accident, though not severe as it occurred at comparatively low speeds, was another blow to the Williams team. The team is currently deprived of a spare chassis which had caused driver Logan Sargeant to miss the Australian Grand Prix. This was a result of Albon damaging his chassis in a practice run and then taking over the car of Sargeant, his teammate.
In Japan, Sargeant was back in the game using the repaired chassis which had been subject to another crash in the FP1. Yet another crash in the race involving Albon puts extra pressure on Williams, particularly in terms of spare parts production. Albon confessed that the possibility of causing more damage to his chassis did cross his mind even before he collided with the wall.
“Immediately. Before I even hit the wall,” was his response to a question about when the spare chassis situation bothered him. He uttered, “It’s exactly what we don’t need. The impact itself was relatively low speeds, but it’s the way that I hit the tyre wall. Normally, we have this kind of plastic barriers, the Armco. But this was much more dug in and it really stops very violently.” He voiced his concern over the vehicle, stating that it’s where the damage could occur.
The vehicle hasn’t been restored yet. “We need to assess it, hopefully it’s okay,” he added. When quizzed about his interpretation of the incident, Albon claimed to have been trying to back off when he realized he was in Ricciardo’s blind area but inevitably failed to dodge the collision.
Elaborating on the situation, Albon said, “I had a grip advantage [on soft tyres], kind of surprised [with] the grip I had out of [Turn] 2, and was able to pull underneath him and have a good run into 3.” He added that in turn 3, he tried to throw Ricciardo off balance a little bit to try and find a loophole for turns 4, 5, 6, and 7. Albon eventually acknowledged, “He didn’t see me, clearly. I tried to back out of it last minute.”
Williams team continues to precariously balance on a thin line as the spare parts diminish. Until a backup car is available for the Miami race, the team will need to tread carefully. Albon acknowledges this difficulty stating, “It’s no secret that we are having a tough time with it at the moment with the parts we’ve got. This is going to hurt us for sure.”