MELBOURNE, Australia – Alex Albon admitted it felt strange to qualify for the Australian Grand Prix in Logan Sargeant’s car and vowed to get his teammate and Williams some points as payback.
Albon’s heavy crash in Friday practice damaged the chassis of his car and left Williams, who are without a spare this week, with just one car able to participate in the race.
Controversially, Williams decided to give Albon the chassis from Sargeant’s car, effectively sacrificing the American driver’s weekend so the Thai driver could continue.
“He’s been a true gentleman, he’s been a true team player in this whole situation,” Albon said of Sargeant after qualifying, where he finished 12th behind Lewis Hamilton.
“We chat, we always chat, we’re very open as a team. I was helping him in FP2 and when the decision was made he was helping me.”
He added it was: “A different feeling, a weird feeling, if I’m honest.”
Williams’ reasoning was that, despite being the one to crash on Friday, Albon presents the team with the best chance to score points if the opportunity arises on Sunday.
Albon has outscored Sargeant 27-1 in points since they became teammates at the start of 2023.
Williams is in a tight fight with the bottom five teams, who are all split by a single point after the opening two races.
Albon, who also turned 28 on Saturday, admitted he feels extra responsibility to deliver given the nature of the situation.
“It’s one thing making a mistake and the pressure of trying to deliver a performance in qualifying, but it’s another feeling when you’ve been given responsibility, and I take that responsibility, it’s not lost on me, so yeah it’s tough. But at the same time the only thing you can do is focus on your job and put it all behind you and treat the weekend like a normal weekend.
“We’re obviously a session down but generally that’s all I can really do, and so far we’ve done a good job, and just got to keep it going, and the ultimate kind of payback to Logan would be some points.”
Melbourne’s Albert Park has thrown up unpredictable results in the past and Albon, who starts alongside Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton, said there might be opportunities ahead.
“[Points] would be a lovely cherry on the top, we have to be realistic though, I’m next to a Mercedes and I don’t think I’ll see him for too long.
“Yuki [Tsunoda] is surprising, he’s doing a very strong job in the RB, I think our race is going to be with him.
“The normal Australia… hopefully three red flags and an opportunity to score some points!”
Williams boss James Vowles has revealed the team will also not have a spare chassis at the Japanese Grand Prix in two weeks time, but Sargeant will be back in action.
Albon’s chassis has been sent back to the factory at Grove for repair.
Source: www.espn.com