Alexander Albon lost control of his Williams after tyre temperature spike in F1 Australian GP, as Nico Hulkenberg just managed to sneak through.
After a solid start to the F1 Australian GP weekend, it didn’t end well for Williams’ Albon who crashed out early bringing out the first red flag. He was running a mighty sixth when he crashed on the barrier at Turn 7 and his push to get back failed.
He was certainly angry at himself after the grand prix as he missed on a good chance to score. “It’s all fine, all fine, I am more disappointed and sorry for the team than anything else,” said Albon to media. “We had a great car. I think even in the first few laps of the race we were strong. I was really happy with the car – it was just very unfortunate.
“It’s obviously disappointing, especially when there are opportunities to score points when there are a few cars out of place, out of sequence, and that’s when we need to do well. Everything was lining up until my mistake. Obviously, very angry with myself. It’s one of those things which clearly, looking at the results and seeing where everyone’s at, there was a good chance for points, so we need to score points when we can.”
While he took blame for it, but the crash happened due to an unusual problem. Having run over the kerb at the exit of Turn 5, his tyre temperature suddenly spiked and his tyres overheated which led to him losing control at Turn 7 and crashing into the barrier.
“When I lost the car, I actually was going through there slower than the lap before but I went a little bit wider in Turn 5, went on the exit kerb, didn’t think too much of it, to be honest, but I mean, looking at the data briefly, it spiked tyre temp by a little bit and with these tyres, with the Pirellis, we get punished if we slide, so I think that’s the cause,” said Albon, which was concurred by head of engineering Dave Robson.
“Alex built on his excellent qualifying display to make more positions at the start and was looking good for a comfortable top ten finish,” said Robson. “Unfortunately, touching the kerb at high speed in Turn 5 led to a small snap and a spike in tyre temperature, which led him to lose the car at the next corner.”
The crash of Albon blinded Haas’ Hulkenberg who was second on the scene. The Thai threw large chunk of gravel on the track and it hit the German more because Pierre Gasly escaped before the gravel moment. It blinded him for a moment as had he swayed a bit to the left, he would have hit him.
“Holy moly, I mean seriously I had a code brown in that moment,” said Hulkenberg to media. “That was seriously scary. I mean, thank God nothing happened. But this is a nightmare scenario. You’ve come around a blind corner in a street circuit. I mean, that was seriously scary and sketchy.
“That’s a bad example of a driver losing the car, crashing and coming back onto the track, and because there’s a gravel trap, there was dust, so you could not really see much. I think Pierre was in front of me, he was the first car, I was the second car, and no marshal in the world can react that fast.
“We didn’t have yellow flags, I just saw the cloud of dust and I saw gravel flying around, so I sort of didn’t take the ideal or normal racing line, I went a bit wider. I think I still didn’t miss him by much though, I immediately shouted on the radio that we need a safety car and that it was a dangerous situation.”
Here’s crash of Alexander Albon: https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/video.2023-australian-grand-prix-big-crash-for-albon-brings-out-the-red-flags-at-albert-park.1762041346099425894.html
Here’s fan being hit by Kevin Magnussen’s wheel rim
Here’s FIA asking promoters for investigation
Here’s FIA dismissing FIA protest
Here’s how F1 Australian GP panned out
