Max Verstappen responds to Williams driver change at Australian Grand Prix

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F1 world champion Max Verstappen has weighed in on the controversy around Williams’ driver change at the Australian Grand Prix.

Alex Albon drove the car of teammate Logan Sargeant in qualifying on Saturday after damaging his own.

And Verstappen, speaking to AD.nl, has now given his take on James Vowles’ decision in Melbourne.

Albon damaged the chassis of his FW46 car with a practice in the first practice session on Friday.

Williams, who overhauled their processes over the winter and barely had their challenger ready for the first race in Bahrain, didn’t have a spare available.

They weren’t able to repair the damage in time for the remainder of the weekend, leaving them with only one car available.

Vowles therefore had to decide whether to allow Sargeant to continue behind the wheel, or favour Albon.

In the end, he backed the latter, who scored 27 of the team’s 28 points last season.

Albon has out-performed the American in every meaningful session so far this term too.

On Saturday, he qualified 12th on the grid to give himself a realistic chance of scoring Williams’ first points of the season.

Max Verstappen reacts after Alex Albon replaces Logan Sargeant

Verstappen, who qualified on pole for the Grand Prix, said he could understand why, on a ‘performance’ basis, Vowles had benched Sargeant.

But he still sympathises with the 23-year-old, who’s only in his second year of F1.

The Dutchman joked that he would have taken preventative measures if he was in Sargeant’s position.

He said: “I understand it from the performance aspect, of course, but that doesn’t change the fact that this obviously sucks for Logan.”

“If that were to happen to me, I would completely flatten my car, so no one can drive!”

Did Williams make the right call in Australia?

Vowles has split opinion after making the swap, with Karun Chandhok hailing his ‘strong and bold leadership’ in a ‘brutal’ situation.

Sky Sports F1 colleague Martin Brundle agreed, calling the change a ‘no-brainer’ given Albon’s advantage.

However, Ted Kravitz suggested before the confirmation came through that it would go against Williams’ values as team.

While Albon delivered a strong showing in qualifying, he very nearly made a costly error early on.

During Q1, he ran wide at the exit of turn 10 and had to regain control of his car.

BBC F1 pundit Marc Priestley says it would have been a ‘disaster’ after he’d crashed out in the circumstances.