Williams team principal James Vowles assesses Haas’ tactics and the collision between Alexander Albon and Kevin Magnussen: damage more than a tenth
Williams team principal James Vowles does not agree with the way Haas secured the point for tenth place at the Formula 1 race in Saudi Arabia. Kevin Magnussen had put himself in front of Yuki Tsunoda with an illegal maneuver, for which he received a ten-second penalty, and deliberately slowed down the train behind him.
This allowed team-mate Nico Hülkenberg to pull out enough of a lead to get back onto the track ahead of the slow train after his pit stop. “The questions of whether or not these tactics are permissible or unsportsmanlike is something we should consider as an organization and as a sport in the future,” he says in a video on the team’s website.
However, his opinion is clear: “My opinion is that I don’t want to race like this.”
In addition, Alexander Albon’s car was damaged after a collision with Magnussen. The Dane had left too little space on the outside of the Williams in turn 4 and pushed it into the wall – and also received a ten-second penalty for this.
Although Albon was able to continue, his car was no longer as good as before after the contact. In terms of aerodynamics, the damage amounted to around a tenth of a second, according to Vowles. “But that doesn’t fully describe everything,” he says
Damage cannot be quantified
Because: “Without the load on the front axle, the front tires wear a little faster than those of the competition. The track is quite sensitive when it comes to tire wear at the front. This means that over a long stint like the one on the hard tire, we lost more and more through degradation.”
In the end, Albon finished five seconds behind Magnussen and was still classified ahead of him due to his penalty, but eleventh place was not enough for points thanks to Haas’ tactics
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Stewards are looking at this
Albon suffers front wing damage following contact with Magnussen F1 SaudiArabianGP pic.twitter.com/zwPhiTSs8j
– Formula 1 (@F1) March 9, 2024
Williams is still without points after two races, but could definitely have scored points in Jeddah, the team principal believes. “If the car had worked absolutely perfectly, then you can definitely say that there would have been a much better chance of getting past Magnussen,” he says.
However, a poor start also contributed to the problem, as Albon had actually started the race ahead of Magnussen, but lost the duel with him at the start. “If we had been ahead of him, then points would have been absolutely possible for us as a team,” says Vowles.
Daily form decides midfield victory
Haas is the first team in the second half of the field to score a point. Williams, Racing Bulls, Sauber and Alpine, on the other hand, are still on zero points. According to the team boss, it depends on the form of the teams on the day as to who is ahead.
In Bahrain, Sauber won the race with Guanyu Zhou at the back of the field, in Jeddah it was Haas. “In the last two races, we have seen a completely different order, and that shows that there is only a tenth between four teams,” he says. “It depends on which team gets it right on the day. “
Vowles knows that Williams normally has to be at the back of the field if they want to have a chance of scoring points. This is because the top five teams, if everything goes normally, will be fighting it out among themselves. In Jeddah, Lance Stroll’s accident gave a driver from another team the chance to finish tenth.
And that went to Haas. “We are leaving Saudi Arabia disappointed,” he emphasizes. “We know that we had a car that could have scored points, and yet we left without anything to show for it. “
