Timid start for Williams and “problems to rectify” before Jeddah

Still in the second half of the table throughout this recovery weekend, see a Williams playing points on Saturday seemed difficult. And this was confirmed. Slowed down by various technical problems and with a race pace only ahead of that of the Alpine, Alexander albon et Logan sargeant did not do better than 15th and 20th. A disappointing result for the Grove team, which is felt internally.

“The car was good, but we were far behind, first concedes Alexander Albon, author of a good 13th place in qualifying. We had problems throughout the race, which we could have avoided if we had done more driving during practice. We overheated throughout the race and lacked power. »

Aware of the level of his FW46, the 27-year-old Thai is already looking forward to the second Grand Prix of the season: “ Hopefully we can take a look at the data and arrive in Jeddah in better shape. Our pace is quite similar to the others, so the battle in the middle of the grid will be close and tough. »

Logan Sargeant's bad luck

On the other side of the garage, Logan Sargeant had more difficulties during the weekend. A few tenths behind his teammate during testing, in line with last season, the American did no better than 18th in qualifying, ahead of Alpine with very pale faces. The fault, according to him, is “ an electronic problem with the steering wheel », which is then " returned " Saturday.

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“AGGHH!” shouts Logan Sargeant after running off

He's got going again but he's now down in last place#F1 #BahrainGP pic.twitter.com/6GbCzR0jbV

— Formula 1 (@F1) March 2, 2024

“So the most important thing is to understand the root cause of this problem and solve it in the future. We had a very good first lap and an excellent first stint. "We made some good gains and I felt like the race was coming towards me before we had the problem.", explains the driver who shot straight into turn 4 on the 10th lap and who lost tens of seconds in the process. He has " suffered from an electronic problem, which caused him to flatten his tires and change the steering wheel during the pit stop,” specifies Dave Robson, performance director of the team.

A Mercedes engine on heat in the Williams

But the problems didn't stop with this electronic failure. As the Mercedes W15, the Williams FW46 suffered from engine overheating. “We were struggling a bit with the power unit temperature which meant I couldn't stay close to the cars in front, so it was a bit of a disappointing evening, laments Logan Sargeant. There is nothing we can't do in these cases, but we need to figure it all out moving forward. »

“We faced problems on both cars from the start of the race and we never really gave either driver the opportunity to push hard, confirms Dave Robson. In heavy traffic we were operating the power units at their temperature limits and had to manage this carefully. »

“There are clearly issues that we need to completely rectify before next Saturday in Jeddah. As we saw yesterday, the middle of the grid is very tight and if we had done a better job today we would have the opportunity to race for the points. Fortunately, we have a chance to come back straight away, resolve the issues and race better in Saudi Arabia,” concludes Dave Robson.

With Kelman Marti

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