Williams explains the reason for Albon’s disqualification from Zandvoort qualifying

F1 Grand Prix, GP Netherlands, Circuit Park Zandvoort

Following Alexander Albon’s shock disqualification from Saturday’s Zandvoort qualifying session, Williams team boss James Vowles has offered an explanation to the tough situation.

Having secured an impressive starting position for today’s Dutch Grand Prix, Williams driver Alexander Albon has been disqualified from the qualifying session.

The London-born Thai driver enjoyed a successful qualifying , securing eighth on the grid. The impressive result was a confirmation of Williams’ latest upgrade package that the team introduced at Zandvoort on Friday.

However, after qualifying, a report from Jo Bauer, the FIA F1 Technical Delegate, noted a potential issue relating to that floor body, with the matter being passed on to the stewards.

Interestingly, the upgrade kit centred around the floor which features a completely revised geometry compared to the previous version.

The FIA’s measurements showed that the new floor was outside the regulatory volume mentioned in Article 3.5.1 of the technical regulation. The infringement forced the stewards to exclude Albon from today’s qualifying, which will see the Thai driver start from the back of the grid.

The stewards’ verdict read: “The Stewards heard from the team representatives of Car 23 (Alexander Albon), the FIA Technical Delegate, the FIA Scrutineer conducting the measurement of the car and the FIA Single Seater Director.

“The floor body of Car 23 was found to lie outside the regulatory volume mentioned in Article 3.5.1 a) of the FIA Formula One Technical Regulations.

“The team did not dispute the calibration of the FIA measuring system and the measurement of the car, but stated that their own measurements have produced different results.

“The Stewards determine that the result of the measurement conducted with the FIA system in Parc Ferme is the relevant one and the due process prescribed by the regulations has been followed. Therefore the standard penalty for such an infringement is applied.”

Reflecting on the the performance of the upgraded FW46, Williams team boss James Vowles said that the upgrade kit worked just as the team had expected before the weekend.

“The performance of the car was positive. We’re in a situation where that update is now producing good results and, in a very tight midfield, we’re able to put the car back into that [Q3] position, back into a points-scoring position for the race today.

“That’s also mirrored by a long run that again was positive. It had pulled clear of the midfield and we were in a situation, in fact at times, where a long run was overlaying with Ferrari, which is a very different situation to what we’ve been to at the beginning of the season.

The former Mercedes strategy chief has revealed that Williams has been taken aback by the technical infringement as the team has not made any changes to its measurement methods in recent times.

“As positive as that is, the facts are we were disqualified for a floor that was too wide. And my job here today is to go through what has happened and what we’re doing to immediately address the situation.”

“The floor we have here this weekend – in fact, the whole bodywork of items – are all new. It’s not the first time we’ve been scanned. We’ve obviously been following and complying to all of these procedures since they were brought into place several years ago, and [we] haven’t been found in excess until now.

“We use scanning techniques now rather than physical measuring techniques because it’s not just one point that you have to be aware of, and it’s heights and widths all across some quite complex shapes. Before we come here, we have scanned the floor and the car multiple times.

“It happened back at the factory in isolation with the floor. It happened back at the factory on the car. It happened here on Thursday as well. And we did demonstrate all of these results to the FIA which indicate that our floor is within the legal compliance. But what matters is the adjudication of the FIA, their measurements and their systems, and that we entirely accept.

“What we now need to do is understand how we could have been wrong in our own measurements and what we need to change in terms of process with immediate effect. There’s only one area of the car that we were not compliant with and it’s an easy fix. But, irrespective, the rule is the rule and it’s black and white in that regard.”

Despite not understanding the cause of the issue, Vowles stated that Williams accepts the FIA’s decision and measurement procedure. The Briton underlined that the Grove-based outfit will address the issue with immediate effect to avoid a similar scenario in the future.

“We cannot spend hours of work developing an update kit. We cannot ask our drivers to put everything on the line in order to secure points-scoring positions to then throw it away with not being completely there on every single boundary of the regulations, and there’s no one really accountable for that but ourselves,” said Vowles.

“That’s on our shoulders. No one else outside of that has any responsibility. We need to address and get on top of that with immediate effect. We still have – beyond here – this race weekend, where I feel we have a strong enough car to be able to fight through the field.

“I’m excited by the prospects of today because the car remains quick and we have opportunity in the race. And beyond here, we have nine more races where we have to deliver time and time again with perfection in order to score points and fight our way up the championship.

“This isn’t the standard I want us to hold ourselves to this weekend. But let’s now make it a process change to ensure that it doesn’t happen again,” concluded Vowles.