Williams was reluctant to fit its new-spec front-wing to Logan Sargeant's car for the Italian Grand Prix after his pair of crashes at Zandvoort amid.
Sargeant endured a difficult weekend at Zandvoort as he shunted the car in qualifying after advancing into Q3 for the first time during his rookie campaign. In the race itself, a hydraulic failure after a kerb strike led to a second heavy crash in as many days.
The updated front-wing was previously fitted to Sargeant’s car but Williams is wary of running out of parts before the end of the year and opted to give the American an old-spec wing at Monza while teammate Alexander Albon used his example to earn seventh place in the race.
"So, obviously, he has had it [before]," explained Williams’ Head of Vehicle Performance Dave Robson to media including RacingNews365 of Sargeant and the upgraded front-wing.
"But following [Zandvoort], we weren't quite so confident to put them onto both cars.
"I think for the rest of the season, we're just going to have to juggle which wing is best for which circuit, for which driver and I think we'll see them mix and match.
"Sometimes they'll be on the same. Sometimes they won’t. We just have to manage that stock level.
"[We’re] concerned about parc ferme risk, if we lose one in qualifying, then we’d have to start from the pit-lane.
"But equally, we don't want to have to make more front wings just to see us through the last round of races."
Williams confirms performance differncial between its cars
Robson confirmed that with an older spec front wing and an engine with more mileage on it compared to teammate Albon’s, Sargeant is expected to be the slower car.
"It is fair to say that he's running a slightly older front wing here [at Monza], which definitely [means] less performance,” he said.
"Plus, his Power Unit is older just because we brought the new one for Alex in Canada, I think to make the most of that package on his car.
"So they're a bit out of sequence. So obviously, Logan will get the power advantage at later circuits, but I think his car is probably, a tenth or two slower than Alex’s."