Williams does not have a spare chassis on site but team principal James Vowles has confirmed that the option exists to switch Albon to Logan Sargeant’s car on Saturday, leaving the American on the sidelines.
Albon had a huge accident in FP1 in Albert Park, hitting a concrete wall with the right hand side of the car at high-speed before spearing across the track and striking the wall on the other side as well.
The team quickly confirmed that Albon, who was not injured in the impact, would sit out FP2.
It will now give the damaged chassis a thorough check via NDT [non-destructive testing] to determine if it can be repaired overnight under a curfew joker.
The call on whether or not to proceed with the work will be made this evening after FP2.
“It was a fairly big accident,” Vowles told Autosport. “The engine is damaged, the gearbox is split in two, and the chassis is damaged.
“It's the worst you could have ever had. We do not have a third chassis here, that's correct. So now it's just whether we can repair this one.
"We have repair kits, fundamentally of those I'm not yet sure, because it's a very serious accident and with what happened on the front [right] corner.”
Source: Autosport