Williams boss James Vowles has revealed that a carbon radiator duct potentially led to Alex Albon retiring from the Formula 1 Singapore Grand Prix.
Albon was seen circulating below racing speeds and ultimately retired to the pits after 15 Laps around the Marina Bay Street Circuit.
With Franco Colapinto narrowly missing out on points in the Singapore GP, who knows what Williams might have achieved with two cars in the hunt?
That will be added to the gargantuan list of F1 ‘what-ifs’ as Vowles and Williams look into what led to Albon’s Singapore GP coming to an untimely end.
“Alex’s car was running hot. We could see that from the beginning of the race, but then it started stepping up quite considerably,” Williams’ Team Principal explained in the latest edition of The Vowles Verdict.
“The actual reason is not fully known yet.
“What I can tell you is there’s a carbon duct that links to one of the radiators and that was cracked. Whether that was enough to be able to cause this issue is what we’re still going through the question of.
“What we will know though is once we have that, that there are effectively measures in place to make sure we both understand the fault and have systems in place to rectify not just that, but others that could occur as a result of the learning that we’ve had.”
Williams encouraged by competitive F1 car amid Alex Albon retirement
Wiliams has scored in two of the last three F1 GPs and narrowly missed out in Singapore with Colapinto finishing in 11th.
As it stands, the Grove-based F1 outfit is eighth in the Constructors’ standings with 16 points, 15 behind seventh-placed Haas.
Haas benefitted amid Williams’ Singapore misfortune as Nico Hulkenberg took ninth at the chequered flag.
Despite Albon’s retirement, Vowles is confident Williams is on the right trajectory.
“We obviously had a DNF, and that DNF was costly as we were fighting with [Albon] back through the field, and we lost more opportunity,” said Vowles.
“I’m encouraged by the fact that we have a competitive car.
“We have a track that’s been really poor for us historically, and it bodes well for the remaining six races, and I can’t wait to see where we are.
“The championship is still wide open. There’s plenty of opportunity in front of us.”
READ MORE: Alex Albon retracts view on Franco Colapinto F1 Singapore GP incident
