The 2024 Formula 1 São Paulo Grand Prix was a difficult week for Williams.
With wet weather pushing qualifying for the Grand Prix to Sunday morning, all ten teams faced a significant challenge in navigating a qualifying session — again in wet conditions — taking place just hours before the Grand Prix. That challenge was even tougher for Williams as both Alexander Albon and Franco Colapinto crashed during the wet qualifying session, putting the team on the clock to get both cars ready for the race.
While the damage to Albon’s FW46 was too much to overcome, the team was able to get Colapinto’s car ready for the race. However, he crashed again in the dismal conditions, and the team faced a new challenge in getting both cars rebuilt back at the factory.
Now the team has shared a behind-the-scenes look at how that process played out at their factory in Grove. In an incredible video shared by the team on Monday, you can see how team members waited until late in the night to receive the two cars and all the damaged parts in several different freight boxes, and worked through the night to rebuild the two cars:
The process included identifying what parts were salvageable, and what parts could not be reused on either car. Eventually, after hours and hours of work, the team had two cars rebuilt and ready for this weekend’s Las Vegas Grand Prix.
The video is a tremendous reminder about all the hard work that goes into running an F1 team, and how many of the unsung heroes put in hours of work behind the scenes, away from the bright lights of race weekend.