F1 news: Alexander Albon’s disqualification at F1 Dutch Grand Prix qualifying, explained

A strong qualifying result from Alexander Albon at the Dutch Grand Prix seemed to offer the team some hope after Logan Sargeant’s hard crash in FP3 prevented him from participating in qualifying. Albon advanced into Q3 and qualified eighth, for his best result of the 2024 Formula 1 season.

But he will not start there.

A post-qualifying inspection uncovered a problem with the floor of his FW46 and, following a hearing with race stewards, Albon was disqualified from the qualifying session. Under F1 rules he will be permitted to start the race, but at the back of the field.

Williams brought several upgraded components for the FW46 to Zandvoort this weekend, which they identified in their “Car Presentation Submission” to the FIA on Friday, available at the link as Document 9. As part of their submission Williams outlined that the FW46 has an upgraded floor, which they described as follows: “The floor body is fully updated as part of a completely new floor geometry. The height of the forward floor is increased, and the fences are reprofiled. The floor edges are updated with more pronounced finger geometry.”

In addition, the team reported that “[w]e have reprofiled the front of the floor body and the local fence curvatures to offer a local load improvement and to also enhance the onset flow to the new floor edge wing geometry.”

That may be where the problem lies.

As initially noted by Jo Bauer, the FIA Technical Delegate, the “floor body was found to lie outside the regulatory volume mentioned in Article 3.5.1 a).”

As a result of this report from Bauer, Albon and a team representative were summoned to a hearing at 6:30 p.m. local time to discuss the matter:

Following the hearing, the stewards released their decision, which was a disqualification for Albon:

According to the steward’s report, 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.” Here is that section of the Regulations, in pertinent part:

The stewards noted that Williams did not dispute the measurements, but stated “that their own measurements have produced different results.”

As a result Albon has been disqualified from qualifying.

What happens next? As a threshold matter, the team will make a request to the FIA that Albon be permitted to start the race despite failing to post a time in qualifying, as the DQ effectively erases his. qualifying performance. Under Article 39.4 of the Sporting Regulations, the stewards will grant this request as Albon has set satisfactory times in practice. This is exactly what happened with Sargeant after he failed to set a time in Q1, but the team made that request to stewards.

As such, both Sargeant and Albon are expected to be at the back of the grid when the race begins, pursuant to Article 42 of the Sporting Regulations.

However, there is another matter to consider.

This decision also raises another issue for the team: Will they be able to field two legal cars in Sunday’s Grand Prix? Putting aside the issue of the damage to Sargeant’s FW46, which prevented him from participating in qualifying on Saturday, does the team have two floors in Zandvoort that comply with F1’s Technical Regulations?

If they do have two of the older floors that — presumably — meet specifications they can revert to that previous design, but then face a pit lane start as they will have changed specifications under parc ferme conditions.

If not, or if they only have one, it might be another difficult Sunday for Williams, possibly reminiscent of their Australian Grand Prix. Earlier this season a crash from Albon left them without a backup chassis, and the team slid Albon into Sargeant’s car and benched him for the Grand Prix.

Could something similar happen on Sunday in Zandvoort?

We’ll know more in short order.