Grand Prix

James Vowles Reacts to Lewis Hamilton and Alex Albon Nearly Colliding at Saudi GP

Nelson Espinal|
May 3, 2024; Miami Gardens, Florida, USA; Williams driver Alexander Albon (23) races into turn one during F1 practice at Miami International Autodrome. Mandatory Credit: John David Mercer-Imagn Images
May 3, 2024; Miami Gardens, Florida, USA; Williams driver Alexander Albon (23) races into turn one during F1 practice at Miami International Autodrome. Mandatory Credit: John David Mercer-Imagn Images | John David Mercer-Imagn Images

Williams team principal James Vowles commented on a near-miss between Alex Albon and Lewis Hamilton during Free Practice 2 at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, which the FIA investigated.

Several qualifying simulation laps occurred during FP2, with multiple cars consistently pushing in certain laps, followed by a few cool-down laps.

A push lap at Jeddah is incredibly on the limit, considering how close the cars get to the walls and how certain corners demand complete trust in the car to rotate through turns.

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Albon himself was on a push lap, and Hamilton was seemingly trying to get out of the way when the two almost collided.

Vowles understands the incident was hard to avoid given the amount of traffic on track.

"It's gone to the stewards," he told the media.

"It almost doesn't look as severe on that imagery, but it's just the certain portions of the track, it's mainly between Turn 4-5 all the way through to Turn 8, where you're blind, you're fully loaded on the car, and there's not a lot you can do anymore as a driver."

"You can lift off, which is about as much as you can do. You certainly can't brake, and that's really what caused it. I'm pretty sure there'll be a sensible review of the stewards where we go."

"It's not intentional from Ferrari in that circumstance, but let's try and be stronger on it, because we just don't want an accident there. We saw this a lot in that session, a lot of drivers getting in each other's way."

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It is expected, according to Vowels, that there will be additional close calls during qualifying, as cars will be eager to cool down their tires while on cooldown laps, and the risk of a car being rear-ended is high.

The FIA investigated the incident involving Lewis Hamilton and found the Ferrari driver innocent, stating that he will not face a penalty.

"We determined that Car 44 [Hamilton] unnecessarily impeded Car 23 [Albon] during Practice 2 at Turn 17," the FIA said.

"However, as agreed with the teams, unless the impeding during free practice was such that it could be regarded as dangerous, there will be no penalty for such impeding."

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"During the hearing, the driver of Car 23 felt that he had the car under control at all times and while he was impeded, he did not consider the situation to be dangerous."

"While his immediate reaction when the incident occurred was to say that it was dangerous, having looked at it subsequently, he agreed that it was not. We accordingly took no further action."

For more F1 news, head over to F1 on SI.

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Nelson Espinal
NELSON ESPINAL

Nelson Espinal lives and breathes sports. Avidly following of everything ranging from motorsports to Mixed Martial Arts to tennis, he is connected with most of the sports world at all times. His dream of writing about sports started at 16 years of age, writing for a Lakers fans blog, and his passions for sports writing has grown since. He has his Bachelor's degree in Political Science, and a minor in writing literature from the University of California, San Diego.

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