Williams reveal Alex Albon changes after astonishing '1,000 degrees' brake fire

Williams team principal James Vowles has revealed that Alex Albon's car will require an entirely new rear end, following a "1,000 degrees" brake fire during first practice at the Marina Bay Circuit.

Albon missed the vast majority of first practice ahead of this weekend's Singapore Grand Prix after his FW47 suffered a brake fire in the pit lane after his opening laps. 

It was caused by a hardware problem, which Vowles revealed triggered something to clamp. As a result, the rear brakes soared to a staggering 1,000 degrees Celsius.

"Yeah, everything looked okay up until Turn 10 of that lap, where we boxed him," said Vowles. "And then all of a sudden the rear brake temperatures ramped up to a level where you really don't want them, which is plus 1,000 degrees Celsius. 

"So it looks like part of the rear circuit. Probably around, hard to know exactly, but something in the rear circuit anyway, hardware wise, basically clamped on a little bit of braking force, and even though he came in slowly, by that point, it was too late."

Albon quickly climbed out of the car to escape the smoke, which took several minutes to get under control and extinguished. It marked the end of his session, with Williams facing a repair job before second practice.

Asked what work will be required on Albon's car, Vowles told Sky F1: "It'll be basically a rear end change. 

"So, it just takes time to evaluate. But it's far easier now we have pre-built rear ends, gearbox, rear suspension, etc. It's much easier just pulling that off and replacing the whole assembly."

Albon track time lost

With first practice taking place during the day and both qualifying and the race being at night, the opening session of the weekend is the least representative. 

Track evolution was also significant as the circuit became cleaner and grip was laid down, although Vowles still wishes the valuable track time had not been lost.

Discussing missing Singapore FP1 not being the end of the world due to the circuit conditions being completely different to the race, Vowles explained: "I prefer not to miss any. 

"But to your point, you can already see how quickly [the track] ramped up in that session, three, four seconds. 

"So FP2 will be a lot more relevant. But this is also a track where it is a street track, and you've got to build up into it, so he'll be on the back foot."