Budget Cap Blow: Williams Struggles After Eleven Car Write-Offs
Nov.24 - Williams is at risk of not being able to field two race cars at the final two grands prix of 2024 in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.
Even before Franco Colapinto's huge Q2 crash in Las Vegas, initially putting in doubt his health for the race on Saturday, the team struggled to put two complete cars together for this weekend.
"The team has suffered eleven total car write-offs this season," reported Auto Motor und Sport. "Four each for Alexander Albon and Franco Colapinto, and three for Logan Sargeant."
The report said Williams is now totally out of spare parts and in danger of breaching the budget cap.
Team boss James Vowles admits that one more crash could limit Williams to a single-car operation. "We can't rebuild another car this late in the season," he said.
"We are already fully focused on the 2025 car."
He also confirmed that another problem is that Williams simply doesn't have any money left in the budget cap for more serious repair damage.
"The situation is a real problem for us," said Vowles.
"There are other teams that have also had more accidents than expected this year and are perhaps in a similar situation to us," he added.
"To cushion something like this, I think every team should be allowed two major accidents within the cost cap. I think everyone would agree with that."
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Franco is proving to be an expensive and uneconomic option!
Writing off four cars in just 7 race meetings is a bit too much and won't look good on his driving profile, especially when it takes the team outside their budget cap!
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