Williams' bizarre failure to remove airbox fan from Alex Albon’s car explained

Williams mistakenly left an airbox fan on Alex Albon's F1 c🌠ar during qualifying, Lewis Larkam writes from Baku.

Alex Albon
Alex Albon

168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Alex Albon says a “rush to get the tow” in qualifying at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix was why an airbox fan was not removed from his Williams F1 car.

There was a bizarre blunder early on in Q3 as Albon exited the piꦅts but was forced to pull to the side of the track in order to remove a cooling ai💟rbox which had mistakenly been left on his car.

Albon was seen pull♛ing the fan off his car and throwing it to the side of the track. He qualified 10th for Sunday’s race in Baku but faces an anxious wait to see if he will lose the position after being summoned to see the stewards.

[It was] a bit of a rus🐬h to get the tow, a bit like Monza,” Albon explained. I actually think this track's even better with the tow than Monza, because it's a low-speed exit and you don't lose as much in the dirtyও area.

“We were targeting close gaps, keen on the garage pull away to get going, and❀ obviously we left a fan on the car. Frustrating. Bett🗹er to happen in Q3 than in Q1 and Q2.

“Obviously it was a bit♌ of a mistake, we'll have a look and review it. But it happens, I'm not kicking the team. I feel like sometimes these things can happen and൩ we've just got to make sure it doesn't happen again.”

Explaining the incident, Williams team principal James Vowles told SiriusXM: “The main reason behind it is the turnaround was compressed into a very short space of time. Around about 40 seco𝔍nds or so, which is shorter than it normally would be.

“You could see everyone jostling for position in the pit lane. Alex was very polite, and it was very ꦬgood of him to do so, but he braked and just let everyone past.

“As soon as he dಞid that we were on thℱe back foot with timing. What it meant is that we created a pressure situation, which normally the crew deal very well week-in and week-out.

“On this particular occasion, for reasons I need to go t🦂hrough, we installed a permanent fan rather than holding a temporary fan, because that’s the real solution behind itꦡ. You never install anything permanent in 40 seconds, you do if it’s five minutes.

“♈As a result of thatꦗ, one of the checks in place wasn’t completed and the car left without that. Now even then, we could have caught it. So two sort of failings we’ve got to go through.

“Why did we in𒅌stall permanent when we should have installed perhaps so✱mething that was temporary and could we have caught it earlier? Because even then he would have got a lap in.

“That’s the negative behind it. The bit that I love with where we are here꧑ is there’s no blame. We win⛎ together, we lose together. It’s as simple as that. We will come back and make sure we don’t repeat that fault again and move on.” 

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