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Alex Albon thinks the FIA's system of randomly selecting cars for post-race inspections, that led to McLaren's double disqualification, only adds unnecessary drama. Interacting with the media, the Williams racer said he is not a fan of random inspections and believes that every car should be inspected instead.
Both McLarens were thrown out of the Las Vegas Grand Prix results after their planks were found to be below 9mm thickness. The low-ride-height demands of the Las Vegas circuit led to the excessive wear. A same situation in China saw both Ferraris, Lewis Hamilton, and Charles Leclerc disqualified being on the edge for a string points haul.
Alex Albon said that selective checks can build inconsistencies and fuel debate, especially when the consequences have big championship implications. While he understands why the FIA monitors plank thickness, to prevent teams from exploiting performance gains through ride-height tricks, he felt that inspecting all cars would create more transparency and credibility across the grid.
Alex Albon disagrees with Andrea Stella on fewer penalties for plank ware infringements
Alex Albon disagreed with Andrea Stella, who said that penalties for plank-wear infringements should be reduced. The Williams racer acknowledged that track racing circumstances can sometimes contribute to excessive plank wear, making certain situations unfortunate.
He justified that even a millimeter below the required bare minimum thickness can make a significant gain. Therefore, he disagreed with the McLaren team principal's call to ease the punishment for such errors. In 2022 and 2023, several teams tried to exploit the loopholes in the regulations with plank skid-block tricks, and rules had to be enforced to police them.
Questioned if he agreed with Stella on the problem of lowering the penalties for plank wear infringements, Alex Albon said:
“I don't agree with it okay we all have to factor in limits and there's a lot of lap time in these cars being a mill [milimeter] lower than wherever. But of course everyone makes mistakes and I get that bit but you know 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 wind 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 yeah you get porpoising and then you need to make adjustments to the porpoising as well and 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 have hardly any plank wear and you feel like you could have optimised the weekend more. But that's just the way that these rulesets are this year,” Alex Albon added.
The current regulations are created around ground-effect cars to prevent teams for exploiting performance-led loopholes. After race inspections, however, are conducted on a random selection of cars.
In China, Charles Leclerc was disqualified for his car being 1kg under the minimum weight requirement, while Lewis Hamilton lost his result following his plank being found to be below the mandatory 9mm thickness. Sauber's Nico Hulkenberg also picked up disqualification for McLaren in Las Vegas had a big impact on the championship, further solidifying Max Verstappen's bid as a title challenger.
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