Scary Footage Released: Albon's Engineer Just Escapes Big Injury

Sunday, 15 September 2024 at 11:27

Updated at Sunday, 15 September 2024 at 11:28

Footage from the Williams Racing F1 team's garage has been released following Alex Albon's qualifying incident, in which he left the garage in an "unsafe condition."

The qualifying session for the 2024 Azerbaijan Grand Prix brought a bizarre incident in which Alex Albon left a Williams garage with an airbox cooler still attached to his car.

The 28-year-old F1 driver initially had no idea and found out about the problem when he was already out of the pit lane, so no one could come and help him.

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Well... this is a new one 😅 A quite remarkable start to Q3 for Alex Albon! #F1 #AzerbaijanGP

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Albon stopped at the next safest spot, on the side of the road at the pit exit, and had to try to get the cooler out himself, which he managed to do in the end (a marshal standing on the side of the track retrieved the cooler afterward).

Alex Albon stopped at the pit exit, tossing cooling equipment out of his car, with a marshal standing nearby and Sergio Perez exiting the pits in the background.

Alex Albon throwing the cooling equipment away at the pit exit

The problem was that getting rid of the cooler took too much time, so Alex Albon couldn't go for the final flying lap. But how did Williams manage to release their F1 car out of the garage with the big cooler still attached to it?

It was initially suspected that someone within the team (whose responsibility it was) simply forgot about it. But the footage released afterwards shows that the mechanic tried to get the cooler out.

In fact, Albon got the sign to leave the garage too early, and the engineer trying to get the cooler out nearly lost his leg, as the Williams car had missed it by centimeters. See the video below:

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A Williams mechanic was extremely fortunate to avoid being hit by @alex_albon's car when it was released from their garage with an airbox cooler still in place during qualifying. #F1 #AzerbaijanGP #RaceFans

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Williams was fined €5,000 for releasing Albon's car in an "unsafe condition." Although stewards noted it's not okay for the driver to stop on the side and get rid of the cooler himself, they also acknowledged it was the "least worst option." Here is what the official document said:

"The car was released from the garage with the engine cooling fan still attached. The car was stopped at the first opportunity, at the pit exit, and subsequently the driver removed the fan and threw it overboard where it was subsequently retrieved by a marshal. Albon the drove away and entered the pits without setting an additional time."

"In this case the actions of the team and driver prevented the qualifying runs of any other driver from being affected, as a yellow flag would have had to be shown if the car had remained where it was, or had driven to a run-off, and in this unique case, throwing the part overboard avoided the yellow flag. As was discussed in the hearing, this turns out to be 'least worst option.'"

"Had any of these actions affected other competitors, or created a further unsafe situation the Stewards would have taken further action. However, in this case we impose the usual penalty for a release in an unsafe condition of €5,000."