Revealed: The cost to the budget cap of Williams’ crash damage

Williams have been forced to cope with a huge amount of damage in the early rounds of the F1 2024 season.

The total cost to the team is in excess of $2m, according to The Race.

That is expenditure which must come out of Williams’ budget cap.

The budget for every team is $135m in 2024.

From that money, Williams and their rivals must pay for all parts on their cars, everything required to run the car, team personnel, garages and spare items.

But the three heavy crashes suffered across the first four rounds of the season will take a toll.

Alex Albon’s crash in Australia was the most notable because they had no spare chassis.

Williams chose to withdraw his teammate Logan Sargeant, and let Albon drive his car in the grand prix.

Then in Japan, Sergeant crashed in practice before Albon crashed out of the race on the first lap in an incident involving Daniel Ricciardo.

The chassis from Albon’s car will be sent back to the HQ in the UK before being shipped to China, where the fifth round of the season will be staged in two weeks’ time.

Williams only possess two chassis. The production of a spare has been delayed by the damage accrued this season.

Team principal James Vowles admitted many crucial parts have been destroyed: “Hopefully, we can recycle some of those bits. But, no, they’re pretty much gone.”

He added about Albon’s wrecked car: “It looks like a little bit of damage again on the front-right.

“Complete coincidence, obviously.

“It looks like it’s repairable to me. But that was through images taken,.

“The last two weeks have been tough.

“I think any team to have three major accidents where you’ve pretty much taken out all equipment on the car is enormous.

“Taking that across a season, you can deal with it. Taking it across just a few races is difficult. The impact of it will be what you expect.

“We’re making spares as quickly as possible in the background but, ultimately, performance will have an impact on it.

“We can’t bring as many updates. The updates that were on the car unfortunately are broken, so we’ve got to build those stocks back up and get going again.”