Albon: Rush to maximize Q3 chances led to airbox fan incident

Alex Albon says a rush to catch a tow out on the track in Saturday’s final segment of qualifying in Baku led to his Williams crews mistakenly leaving an airbox cooling fan attached to his car.

As he wheeled down the pitlane and rejoined the track, Albon suddenly ground to halt, realizing the fan was still in place.

Amid the stoppage, a quick discussion ensued with his team about how to resolve the issue without the marshals’ intervention which would have disqualified him from qualifying.

Following his team’s guidance, Albon was instructed to remove the fan himself and throw it out of the car, ensuring no trackside officials were involved in the maneuver.

"[It was] a bit of a rush 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 dirty 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. Better to happen in Q3 than in Q1 and Q2.

• 2024 Azerbaijan Grand Prix - Qualifying results

"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 and we've just got to make sure it doesn't happen again.”

The incident was likely to justify a trip to the stewards’ office, but Albon was optimistic about keeping his 10th place qualifying spot on the grid for Sunday’s race, hoping that Williams had followed the necessary procedures correctly.

"There's a regulation that marshals can't touch the car,” he added. “I'm not sure about throwing a fan out of the car - what's the regulation around that? I think on paper it's OK - a tear-off is legal, why not a fan?

"I'm hoping I can keep P10 tomorrow - I imagine I'll get called to the stewards. I think it's best left for them.

"At that point, I'm not angry. I just want to see if we can get going again. That's the only thing on my mind.

"We had a chat around it. We spoke around throwing the fan, making sure the marshal didn't touch me or the tan of the car and then try to get going again. I missed the flag by three seconds, so we almost got it."

Overall, Williams enjoyed a very productive grid-defining session, with rookie Franco Colapinto not only making the Q3 cut but also remarkably outpacing Albon, although the latter was unable to execute his final flyer due to the airbox fan blunder.

The Anglo-Thai racer reckoned that without the incident – and with a perfect lap – he would have beaten his young teammate.

"With the perfect lap, yeah [Colapinto was beatable],” he said. “To be honest with you, we never really got the tyres working. I really struggled to get the tyres to switch on.

"They switched on much better in FP3 than they did in qualifying. Weirdly, on the out lap that I had all the ice down my back [from the fan], the tyres were actually in a much better position! So we need to figure out why that is."

Update:

Williams was hit with a €5000 fine for failing to remove a cooling fan towards from Alex Albon's FW46 car at the end qualifying for the Azerbaijan GP. No sanction was handed to Albon. 

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