Albon's Williams In Problems As He Stops On Track During First Testing Session

Wednesday, 21 February 2024 at 12:01

Alexander Albon had problems with his Williams FW46 during the first testing session at the Bahrain International Circuit.

The first testing session ahead of the new F1 season was highly anticipated, and it brought multiple interesting moments. Early on, Red Bull's Max Verstappen struggled in his Red Bull, while Esteban Ocon in Alpine ran out of the track.

However, there weren't any other significant issues for any of the drivers during the four-hour session until around 20 minutes before it was set to end when Albon's new Williams FW46 suddenly stopped on track.

The Thai driver's stop immediately triggered a yellow flag, and also probably worried the team, as no one wants to see any kind of problems during the testing sessions.

Immediately after Albon's car stopped on the track, Williams provided a short statement on their official X (formerly Twitter) profile, stating they will have to investigate what really happened.

"Alex has come to a stop on track. We'll get the car back and assess the FW46 as soon as possible."

Read also

Verstappen Shatters Previous Year's Day 1 Bahrain Testing Record

However, Will Buxton, who reported for F1TV, was near Williams' garage, and had some more information about what happened, saying that the problem was some kind of a reliability issue.

"As I understand, it's a reliability issue, but I don't think we're a million miles away if we suggest it might have something to do with fuel, be that intentional, but it sounds like it wasn't intentional. But that's what I'm hearing at the moment - a reliability issue - but I don't think a fuel is a million miles away."

While Buxton reported that the problem seems to be a reliability issue, the British journalist also suggested that FW46 may have run out of fuel. However, without more information from the team, it's difficult to pinpoint the exact problem.