Two separate Lap 1 incidents had a significant impact on Williams Racing's pursuit of points in the 2024 Qatar Grand Prix. Franco Colapinto retired early, while Alex Albon's tyre gamble led to a disappointing P15 finish.

Williams Racing's Grand Prix Battle and Its Consequences

Franco Colapinto's Early Exit

Nico Hulkenberg spun out of control at the opening corner, hitting Esteban Ocon. Ocon then collided with Williams Racing's No43, ending Franco Colapinto's race in the gravel. It was a tough start for the team as they lost a potential points contender right from the get-go.After the incident, the Williams Racing pit wall had to assess the situation and make decisions moving forward. It was a setback that they had to quickly recover from.

Alex Albon's Tyre Gamble and Race Journey

Alex Albon was running in the top-10 positions after the team switched his car to Pirelli's red-walled soft compound tyres during one of the three Safety Car slowdowns. However, he faced numerous challenges throughout the race.After opening-lap contact with Lance Stroll, where Stroll's front-left tyre hit the FW46's rear-right, both cars spun around. Alex then had to fight his way back through the field. Choosing to switch to softs from mediums left him with 22 laps of running to fight forwards while trying to eke out all the life from his fresh Pirelli rubber.Initially, it worked, and he gained two positions on the restart to sit in P11. But another incident triggered the Safety Car's third outing before he could push for more. The final restart had him battling by Kevin Magnussen for P10, which morphed into P9 after P2-placed Lando Norris served a 10-second stop-go penalty. Unfortunately, his tyres' grip started to suffer, and he was powerless to stop a series of overtakes before a last-lap pit stop that demoted him to P15 by the chequered flag.

Team's Strategy and Aftermath

Williams Racing's Sporting Director Sven Smeets explained the team's approach. At the race start, they immediately lost Franco as he was hit by Ocon who was hit by Hulkenberg. There was nothing Franco could do other than retire in Lap 1.After a few laps, it was clear that with Alex they had to change their strategy and decided to run as long as possible. When the Safety Car came out because some cars were having punctures, they decided to put Alex on the Soft tyre and not onto the Hard. They knew it was a gamble but at one point, he was running up in 9th place.Unfortunately, their decision didn't pay off today, and Alex had to make another stop just before the end. It was a tough day for the team, but they are going to Abu Dhabi to fight for points in the last race of the season.Alex himself summarised the day after stepping out of the car. "We were a little bit in no man's land most of the race being towards the back and we were struggling with pace. The Safety Car made it interesting, and we took that opportunity to put on Softs. It was an optimistic gamble, but one worth taking because of the pace we had. We knew that on every Safety Car restart the first lap was the only one I could overtake and so we made up some positions and we were in the points for a bit, but we were relying on another Safety Car which didn't come so then the tyres started degrading quite badly. For ten laps we had some good pace but ultimately we were not quick enough."