Last year, the Dutch Grand Prix was one of the best for Williams, who managed to get both cars into Q3 and then also took an excellent eighth place and four important points for the fight for the Constructors’ Championship. This year, too, a great performance was achieved in qualifying, thanks to the fourth row achieved by Alex Albon, while his teammate unfortunately could not take to the track in the official tests due to the accident during FP3.

Just this weekend, Williams unveiled its second innovation package of the season, following the one presented at Imola, with a great deal of attention being paid to weight reduction. In this case, Grove’s engineers made significant changes to the aerodynamics and reworked a large part of the car.

The parts package included a revised floor, which Williams said was “completely updated” and features completely new and revised geometry. However, a technical inspection after today’s qualifying raised doubts about the legality of the new floor, which was only fitted to the British-Thai driver’s car. After Sargeant’s accident in FP3, it was decided to keep the spares for Albon so that he could have an extra unit in the event of a failure even in parc fermé, where it is forbidden to change the specification or be forced to start from the pit lane.

Alex Albon, Williams FW46

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

Albon qualified eighth, his best starting position so far this season. However, during post-session scrutineering, the FIA ​​found that the Williams’ floor had exceeded the maximum limits allowed by the regulations and reported the situation to the race stewards.

According to Motorsport.com, when the FIA ​​analyzed the underbody, it turned out that it was too wide, exceeding the 1600mm allowed by the regulations. For its part, Williams, which had obviously taken measurements when assembling the car on Thursday to make sure everything was legal, claimed that the new underbody was within the limits according to its own equipment. However, the FIA ​​denied this and when it carried out its own scans, it found that it was larger than the permitted size.

In fact, from a regulatory point of view, the floor is divided into several components and Williams has in particular violated the dimensions of the “V-FLOOR-BODY” component, which is precisely the one that encompasses the floor in its maximum width.

“The Stewards heard representatives of the Car 23 team (Alexander Albon), the FIA ​​Technical Delegate, the FIA ​​Technical Steward who carried out the measurements of the car and the FIA ​​Director of Single-Seaters,” the Stewards’ report said.

Alex Albon, Williams FW46

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

“Car 23 was found to be outside the prescribed volume as per Article 3.5.1 a) of the FIA ​​Formula 1 Technical Regulations. The team did not contest the calibration of the FIA ​​measurement system and the measurement of the car, but stated that its own measurements had produced different results.”

“The Stewards note that the result of the measurement carried out with the FIA ​​system in the Parc Ferme is the relevant one and that the procedure provided for in the regulations was followed. Therefore, the standard penalty for this infringement is imposed.”

As a result, Albon will start from the back of the field and all the drivers behind him will move up one position: Stroll will start Sunday’s race from eighth place, Gasly from ninth and Carlos Sainz from tenth.

Williams also submitted a request to the race stewards to allow Logan Sargeant to take part in the Grand Prix, as the American was unable to take part in qualifying due to his heavy impact in FP3. The request was approved as Sargeant’s times in the previous practice sessions were deemed satisfactory.

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