Crashes to have ’medium term’ effect on Williams

Williams’ tumultuous season so far has put a spanner in the works of the team’s plans to develop its 2024 car.

Multiple crashes by Alex Albon and Logan Sargeant so far leave the team desperately short not only of spare parts but also scrambling to repair chassis and produce a spare monocoque.

When asked why the pair are crashing so often, team boss James Vowles said: "It’s a strong question - one to ask the drivers."

He denied that the handling of the vastly different and more complex package for the new season is fundamentally flawed, but what is beyond doubt is that Williams is now struggling simply to be ready with two complete cars at each race.

"Probably the most important thing is the fact that in the last two races we lost a number of floors, rear wings, front wings," Vowles said, adding that suspension parts and even gearboxes are affected by the turmoil.

"It’s a very long list and so difficult to keep pace with the quantity of spare parts we need while working on developments in the background," he added.

"So it’s going to have an effect on what we do in terms of performance later in the year," Vowles admits. "The developments we brought to Japan through a lot of hard work were unfortunately destroyed.

"Once again, it prevents us from being as efficient as we want to be during the next races - just the time it takes to replenish the stock. This obviously has a short term impact but also a little in the medium term as well."