“Rush to get tow” behind Williams’ airbox fan blunder which led to fine

Alex Albon put Williams’ failure to remove his airbox fan down to a “rush to get the tow” at the end of Formula 1 qualifying for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix which earned the team a €5000 fine.

The Anglo-Thai driver left the Williams garage with the fan still lodged in the intake above his head, forcing him to pull over at the pit exit in an effort to remove it.

This prompted a discussion on what to do to remove it without invoking the stewards’ wrath too much, and the team directed Albon to remove the fan himself and effectively throw it out of the car – avoiding any contact with the trackside marshals.

Williams were ultimately fined with Albon’s actions deemed the “least worst option” as his decision to dump the fan himself meant yellow flags were not then required.

“The general expectation when released in an unsafe condition is to simply stop at the next safe location,” the stewards’ reason 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.”

According to Albon, the oversight happened as Williams wanted to get on track quickly to benefit from a draft along the flat-out final straight, a tow he reckoned was more powerful than at Monza.

Explaining the incident, Albon said: “[It was] a bit of a rush to get the tow, a bit like Monza. 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.

Albon expected to be called to the stewards’ office but hoped that he would be able to retain 10th on the grid for Sunday’s race, citing that he hoped Williams had followed the procedure correctly.