After the starting accident at Silverstone, Williams managed to get Alexander Albon’s car back in shape for Spielberg, including the latest updates
Good news for Formula 1 driver Alexander Albon: After his violent starting accident at Silverstone last Sunday, his Williams team managed to rebuild the damaged car including all updates introduced in Great Britain. Albon will therefore be able to drive with the current specification at this weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg and continue testing the innovations.
“After Alex’s car was damaged at the race start last weekend, it is logistically difficult to go straight into a sprint race,” explained Williams Chief Engineer Dave Robson. “However, we were able to repair or replace a large part of Alex’s car so we can continue with updates in the first free practice session on Friday.”
Albon was initially pushed by Sebastian Vettel at the start at Silverstone and subsequently hit the pit wall before being hit hard by two other cars. Albon was subsequently taken to hospital for a check-up, but was found to be uninjured.
In hindsight, Albon is particularly annoyed by the accident because he was unable to test the innovations on the Williams over a race distance. “It’s obviously disappointing that we couldn’t test the new upgrade properly last week, but I know the team have been working hard on the repairs so we’ll be ready to test it further and collect more data,” said Albon.
However, the conditions for this are worse at Spielberg than at most other races, as Austria hosts a sprint on Saturday, leaving only one free practice session on Friday before the drivers go into qualifying.
“The sprint race limits our practice time, but it will be good to get back out there and see what we can do with the car,” says Albon. Engineer Robson also knows, “There is very little time to change the car before going to Parc Ferme in a sprint event. That’s why we have to be brave in the first free practice session if we want to keep improving the performance. “
