Williams Formula 1 boss James Vowles admits that the team’s recent run of major crashes has hampered preparations for 2025 by taking away resources.
Alex Albon and Franco Colapinto have had three major incidents apiece over the last three races weekends, seriously depleting the stock of spares and obliging the team to make more at a time when it would normally be making parts for the new FW47.
The team has only one spare nose and front wing in Qatar, although a second is expected to be flown to Abu Dhabi for next weekend’s race.
All three chassis sustained damage, and there is no spare in Qatar this week as one is still at the team’s factory.
It is on standby to be flown to Abu Dhabi should the team have another big crash this weekend.
Vowles said that the run of accidents would have been difficult for any team to deal with.
“I think teams aren’t built to take, what is it, six major crashes,” he said. “Generally speaking, we’ll hold a stock of parts that’s about four, maybe five of each component. That’s about where you want to be.
“And so it doesn’t take long to figure out that once you crash five or six of them, you’re in trouble. Huge effort by both the trackside team and those in the factory. I’ve had people that are part-time or even on shift work just asking what more can they do to come in and do it.
“And that’s an incredible feeling when you’re part of an organisation that goes above and beyond to make sure we have two racing cars on the grid every week.
“It’s a distraction away from ‘25, there’s no doubt about it. Not so much from ‘26, but you have to pull your effort into just making sure you’re here on track fighting with your competitors around you.”
Expanding on the impact on the cost cap Vowles said: “You’re effectively just moving elements around from what you can do.
“So the implication is you have to take a little bit away from next year’s cost cap. That’s the frustration behind it. You’re moving things around.
“We have elements that we’re fixing for the long term, which is around process structure, infrastructure. It doesn’t hinder any of those. And those are the big gains.
“What we’re talking about is a few hundreds of thousands that I wish we weren’t spending this year that we could spend next year.”
