Monaco spare parts priority for Williams after costly Alex Albon Canadian GP crash

Williams technical director James Vowles has revealed the team is under heavy pressure to produce spare parts ahead of the Monaco Grand Prix with a warning the relentless street circuit could produce the first true wet race of the season.

Following a difficult weekend in Canada that saw the team’s stock of parts depleted, largely due to Alex Albon’s big crash on Friday that destroyed several key parts and a collision with Oscar Piastri during the race, Vowles spoke of the need to build up more spares ahead of the race in Monte Carlo.

So in Alex’s case, that hit on Friday was a very, very expensive hit. It took the floor, the front wing, the rear wing, some elements of the gearbox, some elements of the power unit as well at the same time. "So in that sense, it’s so expensive and obviously, we’re all constrained by a cost cap," the team principal said on The Vowles Verdict.

He said: “We do have a development cycle for some of those components of the car going forward. There's a front wing for example coming, there's a floor development which we'll look at for later.Now, what we've had to do as an impact of all of that is to make sure we prioritise and have enough stock levels for Monaco because whatever happens we are about to go into probably the hardest track in terms of attrition and you simply can't get away with having the cars built up with no spares around you. “There’s where we need to put ourselves in a good position for Monaco.”

Vowles admitted he had a “love-hate relationship” with the iconic Monte Carlo street circuit.Monaco I have a love/hate relationship with this circuit. The way it is, it’s so distinctive. So, let's get down to the real positives. First and foremost, it's great to see the drivers get up to speed at the track and then in qualifying just nail perfect laps.And I do mean millimetre perfect.

If you are right on top of what we call the Swimming Pool sections, you can see that they are just touching their tyres on the entry kerb on the way in. And it is incredible to watch.Weather is often part of Monaco and it is to some degree unpredictable but we have had a few wet races. So it's a tricky circuit, low grip, the drivers are pushing the cars to the limit and it could be our first real wet grand prix which would be a hell of a challenge."