Williams didn’t take away any points from the recent Singapore Grand Prix, but the British outfit did leave Marina Bay with its prospects brightened according to team boss James Vowles.
Alex Albon and Franco Colapinto qualified just outside the top ten at the challenging street circuit. But while the Argentine rookie, who ran for half of the race in the points, finished a creditable ninth, Albon failed to see the checkered flag.
The Anglo-Thai racer was forced into an early retirement on lap 15 following a sudden spike in engine temperatures, the cause of which the team is still investigating.
“Alex’s car was running hot. We could see that from the beginning of the race, but then it started stepping up quite considerably,” Vowles explained in Williams’ online post-race video The Vowles Verdict.
“The actual reason is not fully known yet. What I can tell you is there’s a carbon duct that links to one of the radiators and that was cracked. Whether that was enough to be able to cause this issue is what we’re still going through the question of.
“What we will know though is once we have that, that there are effectively measures in place to make sure we both understand the fault and have systems in place to rectify not just that, but others that could occur as a result of the learning that we’ve had.”
After Williams’ strong points haul in Baku that allowed the team to seize seventh place in F1’s Constructors‘ Championship, the Grove-based outfit pointless weekend in Singapore was a missed opportunity to increase the team’s gap in the standings to rival Alpine.
But while the race’s result did not meet Williams’ expectations, Vowles was very encouraged by the relative performance of the team’s FW46 contender.
“We obviously had a DNF, and that DNF was costly as we were fighting with [Albon] back through the field, and we lost more opportunity,” said the Briton. .
“I’m encouraged by the fact that we have a competitive car.
“We have a track that’s been really poor for us historically, and it bodes well for the remaining six races, and I can’t wait to see where we are.
“The championship is still wide open. There’s plenty of opportunity in front of us.”
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