Alex Albon admits he has to “part block his brain” whilst in the car to forget about Williams’ shortage of spare parts during the beginning of the 2024 Formula 1 season.
Williams’ strive to overhaul its concept for this campaign saw the team push the deadlines late to assemble its car and enter without the protection of a spare chassis.
However, the Grove-based squad’s risk was exposed in Australia as Albon’s crash in FP1 in Australia meant Logan Sargeant had to sit on the sidelines for the weekend.
Meanwhile, Sargeant had to revert to an older-spec front wing after an incident in practice at Suzuka, with Albon then sustaining a shunt on the opening lap of the race.
But Albon has denied that he adapts his mindset to keep that tough situation in mind, citing that he has to push the limits as normal to help Williams end its barren run.
Asked how challenging it was to deal with the predicament, Albon told Autosport: “You go about your racing not really thinking about it, if I’m totally honest.
“Obviously, it’s there, but the moment that you start to think about the lack of parts, or the lack of whatever, you might as well stay home.
“You have got to attack the weekend like you do any other weekend. You can’t treat it any differently.
“You’ve got to be on the limit to feel what the limit is, and you’ve got to get a balance for the car.
“It’s one of those ones where you do have to kind of part block your brain and just go about racing as normal.”
Williams managed to repair Albon’s damaged chassis from Japan and both he and team-mate Sargeant will be running the upgraded front wing this weekend in China.
With the Anglo-Thai driver’s FW46 car also being fitted with a tweaked halo fairing, Albon has lavished praise on Williams for its commitment amid a troublesome start.
“It’s been a tremendous effort,” he said. “Obviously, we’ve been on the backfoot with the crashes, and it is no secret that we were already on the back foot before the crashes.
“So it’s another mighty job as always, and we have to rely on the staff back at Grove to pull things together – as they continuously do so.”
“And it is very, very important, especially coming into a sprint race as well, with all the possibilities of whatever can happen this weekend, you kind of want to be as best prepared as possible.
“Races like this, where it’s so unknown, are an opportunity for teams like us.”
The brand’s expansion roadmap parallels satellite coverage zones for experimental atmospheric analytics.