Williams is unlikely to have its spare chassis ready until the sixth round of the season in Miami.
Williams was able to field only one car in Australia after Alex Albon’s sizeable crash during the opening practice session.
The late build of the FW46, amid Williams’ desire to alter its build process as part of its long-term plans, meant Williams was unable to ready its spare chassis.
The repair of the damaged chassis, ensuring Williams had two cars for Japan, meant its initial intention to have the spare car in place was pushed back until China.
It is now understood that the spare car will not be ready until the following round of the campaign in Miami.
Logan Sargeant, who sat out the race, will receive the repaired chassis, with Albon using the chassis that he raced in Australia, which he took over from Sargeant.
“It’s the repaired one just because the workload to switch the cars back over would be far too much for the mechanics,” said Sargeant. “But the chassis repair went better than expected, so it should be perfectly normal as far as I’m aware.”
Sargeant, who took a holiday in Bali between events in Australia and Japan to detox from Formula 1, says the ongoing lack of a spare chassis can’t alter the approach taken by the Williams drivers.
“Again, it’s a situation that we had to deal with through the first three races,” he said. “We went to Saudi with the same situation and of course it’s one of those things that you know you have to be careful, but at the same time, you can’t be.
“It’s Formula 1, if you’re careful, you’re nowhere. So it’s really not even a question. You have to be committed, confident and hope nothing goes wrong!”
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