Alex Albon has lost eighth place on the grid at the Dutch Grand Prix after his Williams car was found to not be compliant with the technical regulations.
Williams brought a major upgrade to Zandvoort that included a complete new floor — comprising floor body, floor fences and floor edge — as well as diffuser, sidepods, engine cover and the central air intake. It’s the floor that caught the attention of the FIA technical delegate Jo Bauer, who stated, “The floor body was found to lie outside the regulatory volume mentioned in [the technical regulations],” and referred the matter to the stewards.
After a hearing involving Williams personnel, Albon’s car was excluded from the qualifying results.
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“The team did not dispute the calibration of the FIA measuring system and the measurement of the car, but stated that their own measurements have produced different results.
“The stewards determine that the result of the measurement conducted with the FIA system in Parc Ferme is the relevant one and the due process prescribed by the regulations has been followed. Therefore the standard penalty for such an infringement is applied.”
Albon delivered a strong qualifying performance and had originally been set to line up eighth on the grid, but he will now have to start from the pit lane as the specification of the car will need to be changed to become compliant with the regulations.
All other drivers will move up one position in the classification as a result.