Albon and Colapinto sad after frustrating day at Sao Paulo
On the back of a very difficult and expensive Sunday for Williams, Alexander Albon and Franco Colapinto said that they will leave Sao Paulo sad and frustrated.
Having displayed eye-catching pace in the tricky wet conditions in qualifying at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, Alexander Albon secured a spot in Q3. However, the London-born driver caused the fifth red flag of the session after smashing three corners of his FW46 at Turn 1.
The replays showed that as Albon hit the brakes for the first corner, he lost the rear of his Williams. The Thai driver reported on the radio that his brakes might have failed, but his race engineer answered that he could not see any failure on the data.
Williams confirmed ahead of the 71-lap Sao Paulo race that Albon will not be able to start in Brazil as the short window of time had not allowed for the Thai driver’s FW46 to be repaired.
Commenting on his tough day at Sao Paulo, Albon noted: "It’s obviously a really frustrating day. I can only feel sorry for the team, as I know the damage over the last few weeks has been tremendous and it’s put us in a challenging position for the next three races.
"It’s no surprise that the last few weeks have been really tough, but I finally felt we’d found our rhythm again and were in a good place; the pace in Qualifying was strong and I felt comfortable with the car.
"I really didn’t expect the incident in Turn 1 to happen, so we need to take a proper look to figure out what happened. It’s disappointing as it would’ve been a great opportunity to score points, as we knew coming to Brazil there is always a chance for crazy races, however it’s our competitors who’ve been able to capitalise on this.
Williams have been locked in an intense fight with Alpine for eighth place in the constructors' championship, although the surprise double podium finish for the Anglo-French outfit saw them jump up to sixth place in the standings. Williams now find themselves in ninth place, 17 points clear of Kick Sauber, but 27 points adrift of eighth-placed RB.
Albon continued: "I know it hasn’t been easy for the team, but it’s times like this where we must show resilience and try to find the silver lining. The positives are that the car was quick, and I’ve started to get the right rhythm back, so let’s fight for the last three races and see what happens in the Constructors’ Championship."
Albon's team-mate Franco Colapinto also endured a crash in qualifying, and although Williams managed to repair his car for the race, the Argentinean suffered another big shunt on Lap 32
Although the Argentinian driver fortunately emerged unharmed after hitting the barriers heavily, his second crash on Sunday brought an end to what had been a miserable day for Williams.
Colapinto commented: "I’m very sad for the team after what happened today; it was very tough on everyone, and things didn’t go our way. The team did an amazing job to put my car back on track for the Race after the accident in Qualifying, and so I’m very sorry for them to end the day this way.
"We had a quick car and were looking to take advantage of any opportunities in the Race. We boxed for Inters, I was pushing to get the tyre temps up, and I just lost the car on one of the big rivers of water on the track.
"We can and will recover as a team. We still have three races to go, and we’ll come back from this," concluded Colapinto.
