In the round-up: Williams reveal Alexander Albon badly damaged his car’s floor late in the Miami Grand Prix.
In brief
Albon had “huge” floor damage
Williams suffered more damage to their cars than originally appeared in Miami as Albon wrecked his floor at the same place on the track where Max Verstappen went off.
“On lap 50 Alex went across the same bollard that Verstappen did and he broke the floor and the damage was huge,” team principal James Vowles revealed in a video released by Williams. “We didn’t realise how much instantaneously, but just a lap later it became very clear how much it was. It was something circa a second or so of lap time performance, just to give everyone an idea.”
That contributed to Albon’s later error when he locked up and went off the track. “It meant that when he hit the brakes coming into 11, there was no downforce to stop the car. He locked up, lost all those positions and went off.”
Norris ‘been smiling since lap 33’
Miami Grand Prix winner Lando Norris said he “hasn’t stopped smiling since lap 33” – the first lap after the final restart in the race.
Norris took the lead of the race before the Safety Car came out and pulled away from Verstappen to score his first Formula 1 victory by over seven seconds.
“[I’ve] genuinely had the most insane couple days of my life,” he said on social media. “Still don’t know what to say but this was a dream since I was a kid. I literally haven’t stopped smiling since lap 33.
“So much hard work to achieve this and it all finally paid off. The support from all my team, the McLaren papaya fans, other drivers and so so many more, I’ve appreciated every single little bit of it.”
“And after all of this we’re just getting started,” he added.
Penske announce substitutes
Penske have identified the four team members who will substitute this weekend for the quartet who were suspended for the upcoming two rounds in the wake of the push-to-pass scandal.
On Josef Newgarden’s car, Jon Bouslog will be the number two strategist and Raul Prados the number two race engineer. Newgarden, along with team mate Scott McLaughlin, was disqualified from the St Petersburg Grand Prix for using push-to-pass outside of the permitted times.
Will Power was not disqualified from the race, though was given a points deduction, as he did not use the system on his car when he was not permitted to. However two of his crew members are among those changing places. David Faustino will serve as strategist and race engineer, and Paulo Trentini Filho will be his data engineer. Penske managing director Ron Ruweski, also Power’s strategist, was among the four individuals suspended.
Penske is yet to announce the changes to its staff roster for the Indianapolis 500.
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On this day in motorsport
- 20 years ago today Michael Schumacher led Rubens Barrichello in a comfortable Ferrari one-two at the Circuit de Catalunya, Jarno Trulli over half a minute behind in third
