Alexander Albon was so alarmed by his brake failure during the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix he urged his Williams to warn his team mate.
The Williams driver started 17th and ran as high as ninth during last weekend’s race in Jeddah but only completed half of the race before he retired in the pits due to the severity of his braking problem.
When it became apparent while out on track that he had lost significant braking function, Albon radioed his team in a panic.
“Brake failure,” he said after going through the heavy braking zone of the final corner of the lap. The team scrambled to investigate the problem, Albon urging them “quick, give me an answer before I brake” as he then approached the similarly heavy braking zone of turn one.
The team replied as Albon made it to the corner, which he navigated safely. “Tell Logan to be careful, Jesus Christ,” he exclaimed. It appears Williams did not relay a warning to Sargeant, who was running behind Albon and was able to see the difficulty he was in.
Albon’s engineer James Urwin replied to Albon later around the lap saying the team was “trying to get you some info for a reset”.
“Quick, quick, I’m going to crash,” was Albon’s response as he went into the turn 13 hairpin, a quick corner which due to its camber requires little braking effort.
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A potential solution was then communicated to Albon, based around making several dial changes on the steering wheel. However he found he was unable to make one of the adjustments the team communicated.
Albon cut across turn 22, then was passed by Sargeant and Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu going into the final corner. Several more cars passed as he coasted to turn one, lowering his entry speed and cutting straight across the corner as he did not want to risk a crash. He also cut several other corners before pitting at the end of the lap.
The team reassured Albon his pit crew would take extra care as he arrived in his box to retire. They performed several brake tests of the front wheels after jacking up the car, before determining Albon’s race was over and wheeling him into the garage.
Sargeant’s radio communication with Williams through the race showed no sign of similar problems, although he twice said that the FW45 was “too nervous in high-speed” areas of the circuit.
On the lap he passed his team mate, Sargeant asked how Albon was doing as he watched him cut…
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