Williams driver Alex Albon has spoken on McLaren Team Principal, Andrea Stella’s comments about lesser penalties for “minor and accidental technical infringments” that don’t improve a cars performance ahead of the F1 Qatar GP.
Albon disagrees with Stella. Stating that everyone has to factor in limits and, “you have to take the safe approach” on weekends where the teams don’t get as much running time.
Albon on McLaren’s plank wear disqualificaton
4 hours after the F1 Las Vegas GP, the FIA announced that both McLaren’s were to be disqualified from the race, Norris lost P2 and Piastri lost P4. This had a major effect on the drivers championship and Piastri and Verstappen are now 24 points behind Norris.
Stella reflected on the result and discussed, what he believes, is the harsh nature of the rules in a McLaren Q&A. Stating that, “Unlike sporting or financial rules, there is no proportionality in the application of penalties for technical regulation infringements. The FIA itself has admitted that this lack of proportionality should be addressed in the future to ensure that minor and accidental technical infringements, with minimal or no performance benefits, do not lead to disproportionate consequences.“
Albon disagrees with Stella on his comments
The Williams driver answered questions about Stella’s comments during a print media session at the F1 Qatar GP. The Thai disagreed with the McLaren Team Principal, suggesting that on weekends when the teams get less running time, they need to take less risks.
“Oh, then I don’t agree with that. We all have to factor in limits, and there’s a lot of lap time in these cars, being a mil lower than wherever, but of course everyone makes mistakes and I get that bit. But these cars are incredible now. We are setting ride heights down to what wind you get for the next day in the race.
“If you get a headwind into a main straight, it completely transforms your ride heights for the weekend in terms of, obviously a few more points up with a headwind puts the car a lot lower and you can get porpoising, and then you need to make adjustments to the porpoising as well in estimates.
“I think it is really tough, the regulation set, so especially on sprint weekends or weekends where we have not much running like Vegas, you have to take the safe approach, and sometimes you finish on Sunday as a team kind of kicking yourself because you’ve hardly had any plank wear, and you feel like you could’ve optimised the weekend more, but that’s just the way that these rules are set this year.”
Alex Albon disucsses whether this problem will continue in the next generation of F1 cars
With two races left in the 2025 F1 season, all eyes are looking ahead to 2026. The next season introduces a new set of regulations, making more agile and competitive cars. Ahead of the F1 Qatar GP Albon was asked whether the effect on ride heights will be less marginal in the 2026 season and beyond.
“Yes but it still will be a talking point. I think it’s the philosophy of at least one part of the car, whether it’s the front or the rear of the car, being as slow as possible, generally still applies, so it will be much less of a talking point, but it will still be there.”
Earlier in the season, both Ferrari’s were disqualified from the Chinese GP for technical infringements. Leclerc’s car was underweight and Hamilton, like the McLaren’s, was disqualifed due to excessive plank wear.
The plank wear for each of the McLaren’s was minimmal (0.12mm for Norris and for Piastri, 0.26mm). Stella argues that these infringements shouldn’t be penalised as harshly if they don’t improve the cars performance, however the 29 year old says “rules are rules.”
All 20 cars should be checked says Alex Albon
The Williams driver does, however, find issues with the random checking of cars after a race. Albon suggested that instead, every car should be checked to avoid anyone running an illegal car.
“Yes, we could run these things to the deck if we wanted to and have no legality issues. But then we’re all finding illegal performance. I think the main thing for me is that I don’t like that it’s random. I’d almost rather have 20 cars get checked every weekend and then you’d have it in terms of fair game. But it’s that random selected version of it which is a bit tricky.
“But yes, rules are rules.”
