MIAMI — After a tough Friday afternoon at the F1 Miami Grand Prix, it was an even tougher Saturday morning for Williams.
Alexander Albon and Logan Sargent struggled in qualifying for the F1 sprint race, with Albon finishing 20th behind Sargent in 18th. Both drivers moved up one place after Valtteri Bottas was handed a three-place grid penalty for interfering with Oscar Piastri, but that relief has now disappeared for Albon.
According to the FIA, Williams made changes to Albon’s FW46 suspension after sprint qualifying. As a result, drivers will start Saturday’s F1 sprint race from the pit lane.
“During sprint qualifying after parc fermé yesterday and today, the Williams Racing Team changed the suspension set-up of car No. 23. This car should therefore be required to start from the pit lane in accordance with Article 40.9 b). “Provisions of the F1 Sporting Regulations 2024,” read a report by FIA F1 Technical Representative Joe Bauer.
The team shared the news on social media on Saturday morning, pointing to “setup and balance discrepancies” that needed adjustment.
We start Alex from the pit lane to change a few set-up items on the car ahead of the sprint. A review of the machine after the session revealed an inconsistency in the setup and balance that needed to be adjusted. Therefore, we plan to improve the packaging over the remaining period. pic.twitter.com/jsMn6oFnPT
— Williams Racing (@WilliamsRacing) May 4, 2024
After Friday’s session, the team expressed some dissatisfaction with their qualifying performance. “Obviously we’re quite disappointed with the result of sprint qualifying. We made a lot of set-up changes between FP1 and SQ and unfortunately they didn’t pay off,” said sporting director Sven Smeets of the team. stated in a media report. “We will use the morning sprint races to gather valuable information so we can improve our overall package for Sunday’s qualifying and race.”
“We tend to struggle a little bit when we use harder compounds in the sprint qualifying sessions. We also had quite a bit of change between FP1 and qualifying, but unfortunately that gamble didn’t pay off,” Albon said. “While the changes we made, including some aero parts, were in the right direction, they were not quite what we expected and ended up being too much of a compromise. Sprint Racing I’m hoping that if I wait until then and then change the car setup, things will improve.”
Apparently those changes couldn’t wait.
