James Vowles has revealed the extent of the damage for Williams F1 after the three accidents experienced in Brazil by Alex Albon and Franco Colapinto. These followed two crashes for the Thai in Mexico, and the team principal recognizes that the situation is critical.
He explains that the damage, which certainly amounts to between 2 and 3 million dollars for the Interlagos weekend alone, puts even more pressure on the team's organization, and that it is difficult to endure that.
“It’s a quantity of accidents that almost no team can withstand on the grid” Vowles said. “This team is rebuilding itself to be able to win races in the future. It doesn't happen overnight.”
“This doesn't happen without significant changes across the organization, and this race is just a blip in a multi-year program. That doesn't mean it hurts any less. It’s something that hurts a lot as I speak to you.”
“But I want us to succeed and perform well. I didn't come here to fight for any points, but rather to get victories and win more in the future. And that can't be done without some level of compromise along the way, without rebuilding an organization.”
“So yes, what happened last weekend is painful, but it hasn't changed our goal. In fact, it has grounded me even more in the fact that what we need to do to get there is important, but we can do it together, as a team.”
Hopes despite everything for Las Vegas
Asked about the possibility of Williams bringing recent specifications to Las Vegas, Vowles confirms that the number of spare parts will force compromises, which does not rule out good performance.
“The number of spare parts we have is not enough to deal with such attrition. I have high hopes for Vegas. We were fast there last year and I am confident we have a car which can work well under these conditions.”
“So we are going to do everything in our power to get both of our cars to the best possible specification, with enough spare parts to achieve this.”
“It's difficult to predict what it will look like. We are still receiving the elements from Brazil and determining what we need to do in terms of construction to put ourselves in the best possible position.”
