Written by Augusto Leroux Fernandez, Edited by Sharifah Zaqreeztrina
As the 2024 season comes to an end, Formula One teams begin to round up their finances for the year. One in particular spent too much money on car repairs: Williams. Let's dive into it.
When one usually analyses an F1 team’s performance, the spotlight shines on those behind the wheel. And surely they deserve it. However, the people behind the car are the unsung heroes of the teams on the grid.
With what seems like more than $10 million dollars spent in damages this year and all three drivers on the list for the most destructive racers of the grid, they played a crucial part in maintaining the team’s hopes for points alive.
But having given the deserved credit to those in the garage, cost reduction must be a top priority for Williams’ Team Principal James Vowles when approaching the next season.
The Grove-based team doubles over Red Bull, who are ranked second in the team with most money lost due to substantial damages.
Drivers Alex Albon, Logan Sargeant, and Franco Colapinto have all cost the team more than $2.5 million dollars each. So, here is a recount on their biggest accidents of the season.
Logan Sargeant
The American driver, dropped just before the Italian Grand Prix, didn’t manage to finish a race twice this season. Back in May, he was involved in a collision with Haas’ Kevin Magnussen, which saw both drivers into the wall at Turn 3 of the Miami Grand Prix, his home venue.
Just a month later, he spun out in the rain at Canada; a crash that further stirred the rumours of him being sacked during the summer break. Half a million dollars down as a result of these two DNFs.
The final nail in his coffin was his crash on the final free practice session of the Dutch Grand Prix. Attempting to go over at turn four, he hit the wall, destroying the car in the process and costing the team over $1.7 million dollars. He was replaced by Formula 2 driver Franco Colapinto the following Tuesday.
Franco Colapinto
The 21-year-old Argentinian surprised the grid and the world with his skills and performances on his first races for the team, jumping into the car at Monza with little to no F1 experience and getting points for the team at his second race.
Despite this, the former Formula 2 driver has done his fair share of damages to Williams' finances. The weekend he cost the most (approximately $1.5 million) was at Interlagos, where he crashed out in a qualifying session that saw even experienced drivers such as Fernando Alonso, Carlos Sainz Jr. and his Williams teammate Alex Albon fail to finish in one piece.
Hours after that, as the Qualifying was postponed to Sunday morning due to the heavy rain on Saturday, Colapinto hit the wall at Sector 3.
“It was a huge hit. I’m very sad. I’m sorry for the team, they didn’t deserve this, they did a great job getting the car back on the track” - he said, speaking to ESPN. The engineers, as mentioned before, were once again crucial, having managed to reconstruct his car within just six hours.
But Franco's biggest hit was surely at the Las Vegas Grand Prix. At Q2, and while doing a flying lap with times near those at pole, he touched the inside on Turn 16 and lost control of the car, crashing into the outside wall with a force of 50G, adding another million dollars to his tally.
After receiving a medical checkup due to the heavy crash, he thankfully managed to race on Sunday (another applause for the engineering team) and finished 14th, despite starting from the pit-lane.
Alex Albon
Surprisingly, Williams’ most destructive driver happened to be their most experienced one among this list, Alex Albon. With approximately more than $4.5 million on his end, the British-Thai driver has six DNFs and one DNS this season.
One of his biggest crashes this season, which was widely discussed, occurred in the first free practice session in Australia. At turn six in Albert Park, Albon hit both walls, destroying his car. His car was beyond repair.
Although, seeing him with more chances of scoring points for the team, Vowles decided to give him Sargeant’s car for the rest of the weekend. Still, he finished just outside the points in P11. The next round in Japan wouldn’t fare any better, as he and VCARB’s Daniel Ricciardo collided on the opening lap.
And if all this wasn’t enough for him, Albon crashed both in Mexico and Brazil, with the latter labelled a DNS.
His FW46 was beyond repair once again, especially with the little time they had between the Qualifying and race day in Interlagos. $2 million in damages which, added to those sustained by Colapinto in Sao Paulo, meant that Williams spent nearly $4 million over the span of just two weeks.
As the final race of the 2024 season approaches, the British team's directions must be clear. Currently lacking funding, there needs to be no more damages, especially crashes. Even if the car is unstable, as many have suggested, the team’s priority right now must be to finish the remaining rounds.
Williams’ engineers have sacrificed lots of hours on several occasions this year to repair their FW46s in time. Heading into the next season with the hopes of a battle in the midfield, something has to change.
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