Sunday morning at the Formula 1 São Paulo Grand Prix, Alexander Albon was in the middle of his best qualifying performance of the entire season. An early run in the wet conditions during Q3 put him into P2 provisionally, giving him and Williams a glimpse of a potentially huge day.
Instead, Albon will miss the São Paulo Grand Prix entirely.
A later run in Q3 saw Albon spin off the racing line at Turn 1 and careen into the barriers, the hard shunt causing substantial damage to his FW46 and ending his dreams of a front-row start. With the Grand Prix starting just hours after qualifying due to the rescheduled session, the team faced an uphill climb to get his FW46 ready for the race.
It was a climb that they could not complete in time.
Williams confirmed in a statement roughly an hour before the race that due to the substantial damage suffered in the crash, Albon would not be participating in the São Paulo Grand Prix.
“It’s a heartbreaking day for the team. We’re here to go racing and nobody wants to be in this situation. The most important point is that all the drivers who had incidents in Qualifying are okay, including Alex and Franco,” said Team Principal James Vowles in the statement. “Despite the best efforts of our hard-working, talented, and resilient team, there simply was not enough time to repair Alex’s car in time for the Grand Prix. It’s a bitter pill to swallow at the end of a tough triple-header, especially when both drivers showed tremendous pace this morning.
“We will focus on maximising this afternoon with Franco [Colapinto] and putting on a show for the incredible fans here in Brazil.”
Colapinto, who qualified 16th, will now start 15th with Albon missing the race.
This is not the first time that Williams entered a Grand Prix this season with just one car in the field. Back at the Australian Grand Prix at the start of the year, Albon suffered a hard crash in practice. With the team lacking a backup chassis, Vowles made the difficult decision to slide Albon into Logan Sargeant’s seat for the race.
Albon just missed out on the points, finishing 11th in that race. Now, the team is hoping for something even bigger from Colapinto.
