2023 Japanese Grand Prix

Dave Robson, Head of Vehicle Performance: We were forced to retire both cars today after both sustained early damage from contact with other cars. Both sustained front wing and floor damage and whilst we were able to change the front wings, the floor damage worsened, and it was no longer possible to continue with either car.

It is very frustrating not to finish the race with either car, but we can now get back to Grove, regroup and get ready to tackle the Lusail International Circuit in Qatar, which we last visited in 2021.

Alex Albon: No car is strong enough to survive those kinds of crashes. A bad start kind of triggered it, so we need to work on that, but then we were in the wrong position at the wrong time and I got squeezed. I had damage from lap one and it was pretty much game over so it’s a shame. We tried to push on and see if the race would unfold and see what would happen as this race is a bit of a battle of attrition, but ultimately we needed to retire the car.

Logan Sargeant: A hectic first few laps for sure. I came out the pitlane to a lot of debris on the track being worried about getting a puncture. From my side on the incident, I locked the fronts the second I touched the brakes at Turn 11. It’s my fault but [Valtteri] Bottas must not have seen that I locked up before making the move. Unfortunately, we had to retire the car following the contact. It’s disappointing for a track where we had the car in a pretty good place and decent pace, especially in qualifying, to come away not even finishing the race. We’ll move on and focus on Qatar.