Suffering one huge hit after another, James Vowles has revealed Williams are “critically low” on spare parts but he’s confident two cars will be on the grid in Abu Dhabi.

Putting a heavily revised FW46 on the track after the summer break, Williams hit a purple patch with Alex Albon and his new team-mate Franco Colapinto scoring 13 points in four races, Monza to Austin.

Williams have recorded 17 accidents in 23 Grands Prix

And then came Mexico.

Albon suffered a heavy crash in FP1 at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez followed by a race-ending collision on the opening lap of the Grand Prix.

A week later in Brazil, Williams had three big crashes on the Sunday alone with Albon and Colapinto into the barriers in the delayed Sunday morning qualifying before Colapinto crashed in the race. Albon did not make the starting grid as the team did not have enough time to repair his car.

Formula 1 then moved onto Las Vegas where Colapinto’s car was destroyed in a huge 50G crash in qualifying. Williams were, Vowles said at the time, under the pump for spares.

The repair bill faced another hit, three in fact in Qatar when Colapinto was punted out of the race by Esteban Ocon while Albon was spun by Lance Stroll and later hit Kevin Magnussen.

“Both cars sustained damage at a time when we are critically low in spares,” Vowles said immediately after Qatar.

“We will come back in Abu Dhabi and have two cars on the grid but it is going to take a tremendous amount of work over these next few days to ensure we’re back in a position to be fighting competitors.”

F1 2024: Team-mate head-to-head stats

👉 F1 2024: Head-to-head qualifying record between team-mates

👉 F1 2024: Head-to-head race statistics between team-mates

He has since issued an update on the team’s spare parts situation, revealing Williams flew extra personnel into Abu Dhabi to ensure the cars would be ready for Friday’s opening practice.

“You’d expect three large accidents, maybe, at the upper end, in a year,” said Vowles in a Williams video. “Yet we’re here looking at 17 accidents, total, in 23 races.

“The damage with Franco, unfortunately, is large. The chassis was impacted and we have a team going out to Abu Dhabi working through the night in order to make sure we’re back up and racing.

“The gearbox was impacted in damage on both cars from incidents and then there’s floor damage, rear suspension damage and other miscellaneous components as well.

“Normally in a season you can sustain that. But race, after race, after race – we are getting very short on components.”

With one race remaining this season, Williams are P9 in the Constructors’ Championship on 17 points, 13 ahead of Sauber and 29 behind VCARB.

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