Williams have struggled at the bottom of the midfield for most of the 2024 season, so Alex Albon’s P8 qualifying for the Dutch Grand Prix was finally a positive sign for them due to his pure speed. However, he was unfortunately disqualified by the FIA ​​after his FW46 was found to be exceeding the permitted floor width.

The decision to disqualify Albon came about two hours after qualifying and left the British-Thai driver in despair. However, team boss James Vowles has now spoken openly about how little difference there was to the underbody of Albon’s car.

Formula1.com quoted Vowles as saying: “It was Decimal places of a millimeter, barely the width of sandpaperbut that’s the world we operate in. I’m glad the car still looks fast.”

In the statement by the race director after Albon’s disqualification, it was said that the main problem was the so-called “soil body”, which did not comply with the requirements of Article 3.5.1 a) of the technical regulations.

Interestingly, while the Williams team acknowledged the accuracy of the FIA’s measurement system, they pointed out that their own measurements had shown different results. Regardless of this fact, the Dutch GP weekend was thoroughly ruined for the Grove-based team.

Vowles takes responsibility for avoiding technical violations like at the Dutch GP

It was an important weekend for Williams considering they had made significant improvements to both cars after the summer break and the car looked quick enough all weekend.

But ultimately it turned out to be a missed opportunity because firstly, Logan Sargeant had a terrible accident in FP3 which destroyed his car and prevented him from taking part in qualifying, then Albon’s disqualification meant that both cars had to start from the back of the grid and neither car could finish in the points.

Vowles has stated that they failed to implement the regulations properly while their drivers risked everything to score points, but he has now taken responsibility for getting things right so that the team never faces such a compliance issue again in the future.

In a video clip on Williams’ X account (formerly Twitter), Vowles said: “Nobody is really responsible for this except ourselves. It is on our shoulders. What we need to do now is understand how we could have been wrong in our own measurements and what we need to change in terms of processes with immediate effect.”