“Hope you have 2 cars in China”: F1 presenter takes a wry jab while talking to Williams boss James Vowles

F1 journalist Will Buxton took a jibe at Williams team principal James Vowles after the British outfit had a miserable outing at the Japanese GP.

The Suzuka International Racing Course hosted the fourth F1 race on the calendar and witnessed a horrific collision between Daniel Ricciardo and Alex Albon on the first lap. At Turn 3, while making way from the outside of the VCARB01, Albon got hit by Ricciardo, and both the drivers’ weekend ended with a dismal DNF.

Moreover, the FP1 session on Friday saw Logan Sargeant violently crashing the repaired FW46 into the barriers. Before the mishap by the American driver on the 5.807 km circuit, Albon severely damaged the same chassis during the free practice session of the Australian GP. The fatal crash led to Sargeant sitting out of the third tace race on the calendar and the Thai driver replacing him and the car.

Witnessing the recent turmoil inside the Williams paddock, wherein the surety of having both the chassis ready to go at the GPs looked uncertain, Will Buxton took a veiled dig at team principal James Vowles, saying (via X):

“We’ll look forward to China [Chinese GP], we hope you have two cars on the track for that.”

Williams team principal weighs in on the “encouraging element” despite a woeful outing at Suzuka

The 2023 season for Williams ended on a rather high note as the team clinched the P7 spot, bagging 28 points. Last year was the British outfit's best season since 2017, where they collected 83 points and stood at P5 in the constructors standings. However, they are yet to chalk up any points this season.

Although the current season for Williams has been lackluster so far, Albon's performance has seen an upward movement. From his first run at the Bahrain GP wherein he claimed the P15 spot, the next two outings, at the Saudi Arabian GP and the Australian GP, saw him miss the P10 spot by a whisker, coming home with P11s.

Keeping the subpar progress of Williams handy, Vowles expressed optimism during his post-race address at Suzuka (via Williams on X) :

"Logan was racing well again, fighting his way back up through the traffic before mistake going into turn 8, just a very small lock[up], but enough to push him off the track." [1:03]

The team principal added:

"The encouraging elements for me are that we still have a car that can perform in a race condition."