Alex Albon has been thrown out of the Dutch Grand Prix qualifying results as the floor on his Williams was found not to be compliant with the FIA’s legality checks.
The Anglo-Thai driver had enjoyed an impressive Saturday afternoon at Zandvoort, and had hurled his newly upgraded Williams into eighth in qualifying to beat Lance Stroll and Pierre Gasly in Q3.
In their post-session scrutineering session, the FIA had found the Williams’ floor had lain outside of the maximum bounding box permitted by the regulations and thus reported to the stewards.
Autosport understands that when the floor was scanned by the FIA, it was found to be too wide — beyond the 1600mm width permissible by the regulations.
Williams had contended that its own measuring devices had shown that it was within the limits which the FIA did not dispute, but that its own scan had proven to be different.
The floor had been among the numerous upgraded parts that Williams had brought to the first race after the summer break; the team had also introduced new sidepods and engine cover bodywork in an effort to move up the championship order.
«The Stewards heard from the team representatives of Car 23 (Alexander Albon), the FIA Technical Delegate, the FIA Scrutineer conducting the measurement of the car and the FIA Single Seater Director,» read the stewards’ report.
Alex Albon, Williams FW46
Photo by: Andrew Ferraro / Motorsport Images
«The floor body of Car 23 was found to lie outside the regulatory volume mentioned in Article 3.5.1 a) of the FIA Formula One Technical Regulations.
«The team did not dispute the calibration of the FIA measuring system and the measurement of the car, but stated that their own measurements have produced different results.
«The Stewards determine that the result of the measurement conducted with the FIA system in Parc Ferme is the relevant one and the due process prescribed by the regulations has been followed.
«Therefore the standard penalty for such an infringement is applied.»
Williams said: «We are incredibly disappointed with this outcome and will be carrying out a thorough investigation and will provide an update soon.»
As a result, Albon will start from the back of the grid, and all drivers behind him will move up one position — Stroll will start from eighth in Sunday’s race, with Gasly ninth and Carlos Sainz 10th.
Williams also submitted a request to the stewards to allow Logan Sargeant to start, as the American’s heavy FP3 impact precluded him from participating in qualifying. This was granted, as Sargeant’s times in the earlier practice sessions were deemed to be satisfactory — per Article 39.4 in the F1 sporting regulations.