The past four races have been challenging for Williams. The team has had to deal not only with damage caused by driver incidents but also with the financial impact of achieving two podium finishes, which ultimately made it impossible to secure eighth place in the Constructors’ Championship.
These factors have taken a significant toll on the Grove-based team financially. Yet, after the Brazilian Grand Prix, the mechanics and engineers worked tirelessly to produce new parts and repair as many components as possible. The extent of the damage was so great that, ahead of the Las Vegas Grand Prix, there were doubts about whether both Williams cars could run the same specification. The alternative was to equip one car with the latest updates while the other used older components.
However, thanks to extraordinary efforts behind the scenes, the team managed to bring both cars to Las Vegas in the same specification—at least until Franco Colapinto’s significant crash during qualifying, which caused substantial damage to his car. After the race, Team Principal James Vowles admitted that the pit wall could have done a better job, as the team failed to provide Franco Colapinto with a sufficiently large gap from the car ahead before his flying lap, forcing him to push harder during the lap.
“Unfortunately, I think Las Vegas and Q2 put me in a position where I had to push a little more to the limit compared to other sessions. At the end of the day, I took a bit too much risk. In qualifying, I felt really good. Q1 went very well, and even in Q2, I put in a strong first lap. On the last lap with fresh tires, I made a big step forward. But these things happen—it’s part of racing.”
The crash was undoubtedly costly, not only because it forced Franco Colapinto to start from the pit lane when he had the potential for a strong Q2 position but also because it further strained the team’s resources. For this weekend, the Argentine driver will no longer have access to the latest front suspension due to the depletion of available parts following recent incidents.
“The front suspension is different. This is the older specification, along with a few other components. But that’s how it is. We have to accept it and try to optimize the car as best we can,” Colapinto explained, highlighting that the decision was driven by insufficient parts for both cars. “There just aren’t enough components, and this is part of the consequence of the crashes we’ve had in the past few races.”
The revised front suspension, introduced in Singapore, completed a package that debuted weeks earlier at Zandvoort. Williams had explained that the suspension upgrade focused on two key areas: reducing the car’s weight and optimizing compatibility with updates to the sidepods and floor introduced in the Netherlands. While the difference is not expected to be substantial—estimated at around a couple of kilograms—even small fractions can make a difference on such a tightly packed grid.
Leave a Reply