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WATCH: James Vowles Reveals Reason Behind Alex Albon's Shock Dutch Qualifying Disqualification

Saajan Jogia

James Vowles - Williams Racing
James Vowles - Williams Racing / Williams Racing Press Image

Williams team principal James Vowles shared a video on X explaining the cause of Alex Albon's disqualification from the Dutch GP qualifying. Vowles revealed that an error in the team's scanning techniques had incorrectly cleared the car as compliant with FIA regulations, but the FIA's tests later showed that the car's floor was too wide, leading to the disqualification.

The FIA's ruling on the floor, revealed during post-qualifying inspections, took Williams by surprise. The team had previously measured the upgraded car multiple times, confidently believing it complied with all regulations. However, the governing body's calibrated scanner highlighted the illegality of the floor.

As part of the upgrade package for the FW46 F1 car, the new floor was found to be wider than the limit set by the regulations, causing Albon to lose the team's best qualifying result of eighth thus far in the season.

The upgrade may have ended Williams' quest for better performance, but Vowles identified the root cause—an error in the scanning technique that misled the team, even after the scan was performed before FIA officials. This significant oversight, which will now be carefully examined to ensure greater accuracy, means Albon will start the race at the back of the grid, just behind his teammate Logan Sargeant. Throwing light on the issue in a video, Vowles explained:

“It's not the first time we've been scanned.

“We've obviously been following and complying to all of these procedures since they were brought into place several years ago, and haven't been found in excess until now.

“We use scanning techniques now rather than physical measuring techniques, because it's not just one point that you have to be aware of - its heights and widths all across some quite complex shapes.

“Before we came here, we have scanned the floor and the car multiple times. It happened back at the factory in isolation with the floor. It happened back at the factory on the car. It happened here on Thursday as well.

“We did demonstrate all of these results to the FIA, which indicate that our floor is within the legal compliance. But what matters is the adjudication of the FIA, their measurements and their systems, and that we entirely accept.”

Despite the problem being an easy fix, Williams will investigate the measurement error to determine the necessary adjustments, to prevent a similar setback in the future. He added:

“What we now need to do is understand how we could have been wrong in our own measurements, and what we need to change in terms of process.

“With immediate effect, there's only one area of the car that we were not compliant with, and it's an easy fix. But irrespective, the rule is the rule, and it's black and white.”

Despite the major setback, Vowles revealed he was optimistic about the car's performance for Sunday's Grand Prix. He added:

“We cannot spend hours of work developing an update kit, and we cannot ask our drivers to put everything on the line in order to secure points-scoring positions, to then throw it away with not being completely there on every single boundary of the regulation.

“There's no one really accountable for that but ourselves. That's on our shoulders. No one else outside of that has any responsibility. We need to address and get on top of that with immediate effect.

“We still have this race weekend, where I feel we have a strong enough car to be able to fight through the field. I'm excited by the prospects for today, because the car remains quick, and we have an opportunity in the race and beyond.

“Then we have nine more races where we have to deliver time and time again with perfection in order to score points and fight our way up the championship.

“This isn't the standard I want us to hold ourselves to this weekend, but let's now make a process change to ensure that it doesn't happen again.”

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Saajan Jogia

SAAJAN JOGIA

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