The majority of Formula 1 teams insist on making people believe that there is absolute equality of treatment between their two drivers, that with the passing of the grand prix and the progress of the season they soon head towards one of the two sides of the workshop. In the case of Williams, it was not necessary to wait too long to see where the British team is limping. In Australia, where this Sunday (05:00, Dazn) the third stop of the calendar takes place, Alex Albon will get into the car of Logan Sargeant, his garage neighbor, after crashing into the walls that embrace the Albert Park circuit in Melbourne , and destroy the chassis of his FW46. The accident, in the zigzag of curves 6 and 7 of this unforgiving urban layout, forced training to be neutralized ten minutes from the end. That left Lando Norris as the fastest, even though Charles Leclerc surpassed him later, in the second test, in which Carlos Sainz finished third and Fernando Alonso, fifth.
Albo’s crash was so violent that it affected the skeleton structure of the car. In another era, long before the current budget restrictions began to be considered, it was common to send a third prototype to the races, usually in parts, known as a muleto, to be able to deal with this type of misfortune. The fact that Grove’s company did not have a third chassis on hand forced its executives to have to decide which of its two drivers was going to have to sit out the rest of the grand prix. Finally, Williams removed Sargeant from his car so that Albon could lead the aspirations of this historic championship that had fallen into disrepair. A controversial solution if we take into account that neither of the two riders has been able to accumulate a single point so far this year, a circumstance that leaves their team in the catacombs of the statistics reserved for the constructors, paired with Sauber, RB Honda –former Alpha Tauri– and Alpine.
“This is the most difficult moment in my career; It’s not easy at all,” Sargeant acknowledged, after learning that Albon had just stolen his car. “However, I am here for the team and will continue to contribute in any way I can this weekend to maximize the collective potential,” added the American. “While Logan shouldn’t have to pay the consequences for a mistake he didn’t make, every run counts when the middle is tighter than ever. “We have made this decision based on what we believe is our greatest potential to be able to score points this weekend,” said James Vowles, Williams manager. “This decision was not made lightly, and we don’t know how to thank Logan for the grace he has shown in accepting it. All this puts us in a very complicated situation, in which we will not be immersed again in the future,” added the engineer, formerly of Mercedes, who partly assumed responsibility for not having a third chassis in Australia. “In modern F1 it is unacceptable not to work with a third spare chassis, but that is a reflection of the delay that we have been dragging on since the winter, and that led us to prioritize performance with a view to the future,” Vowles stressed.
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