Alex Albon explained a rush at the end of qualifying for the Formula 1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix led to the airbox cooling fan on his Williams staying on the car down pit-lane.
Williams enjoyed a great result in Saturday’s qualifying session at Baku as both Albon and team-mate Franco Colapinto got into the Q3 top-10 shootout.
Ahead of his final run, Albon’s Williams was left to exit pit lane with the airbox cooling fan still attached.
The Anglo-Thai driver was able to stop at the pit-lane exit and remove the device, but missed out on making a final run.
“[It was] a bit of a rush to get the tow, a bit like Monza,” Albon explained (via Motorsport.com).
“I actually think this track’s even better with the tow than Monza, because it’s a low-speed exit and you don’t lose as much in the dirty area.
“We were targeting close gaps, keen on the garage pull away to get going, and obviously we left a fan on the car. Frustrating. Better to happen in Q3 than in Q1 and Q2.
“Obviously it was a bit of a mistake, we’ll have a look and review it. But it happens, I’m not kicking the team. I feel like sometimes these things can happen and we’ve just got to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
To avoid an immediate penalty, Albon was instructed to remove the device on his own and not let a marshall touch his FW46.
“We had a chat around it,” Albon said.
“We spoke around throwing the fan, making sure the marshal didn’t touch me or the tan of the car and then try to get going again. I missed the flag by three seconds, so we almost got it.”
Ninth possible without airbox incident, says Albon
Missing the chequered flag resigned Albon to 10th in qualifying, one place behind Colapinto.
Still, Albon feels he would have had the pace to beat his team-mate “with the perfect lap.
“To be honest with you, we never really got the tyres working. I really struggled to get the tyres to switch on.
“They switched on much better in FP3 than they did in qualifying. Weirdly, on the out lap that I had all the ice down my back, the tyres were actually in a much better position. So we need to figure out why that is.”
Albon escaped a penalty and will now start from ninth on the grid after Lewis Hamilton made a power unit change.
Instead, the FIA Race Stewards handed Williams a €5000 fine.
“The general expectation when released in an unsafe condition is to simply stop at the next safe location,” the Stewards’ statement read.
“Throwing parts overboard, requiring a marshal to retrieve them is not normal.
“However, in this case the actions of the team and driver prevented the qualifying runs of any other driver from being affected, as a yellow flag would have had to be shown if the car had remained where it was, or had been driven to a run-off, and in this unique case, throwing the part overboard avoided the yellow flag.
“As was discussed in the hearing, this turns out to be ‘least worst option’.”
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