Williams driver Alexander Albon endured a frustrating start to the Canadian Grand Prix weekend after crashing during Friday’s only practice session in Montreal, with the incident reportedly triggered by a collision with a marmot on track.
The accident happened during FP1, the sole practice session of the sprint weekend, making every lap especially valuable for teams and drivers. With around 35 minutes remaining in the session, red flags were brought out after Albon lost control exiting Turn 6 and slammed into the barriers, causing visible damage to the side and rear of his Williams car.
Initial confusion surrounded the cause of the crash, but Sky Sports F1 commentator David Croft later explained that the incident may have involved one of the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve’s well-known animal residents.
“We may not see a replay of the crash because there may have been a marmot involved and Alex was trying to avoid one of the local inhabitants,” Croft said during the broadcast.
Marmots, commonly referred to as groundhogs in North America, are frequently seen around the Canadian Grand Prix circuit. Over the years, several have wandered onto the track during Formula 1 weekends, occasionally leading to unfortunate collisions with cars travelling at high speed.
According to reports from the paddock, Albon’s Williams struck one of the animals before the driver lost control and hit the wall. The impact forced the session to be temporarily stopped while marshals cleared debris and recovery crews removed the damaged car from the circuit.
During the red flag period, Sky Sports reporter Ted Kravitz revealed that Williams mechanics immediately began assessing the scale of the repairs required ahead of sprint qualifying later in the day.
“The Williams engineers and mechanics are chatting with team principal James Vowles to work out what repairs are necessary on Albon’s car,” Kravitz explained.
He also added an unfortunate personal twist to the story, pointing out that Albon is widely known as one of the biggest animal lovers on the Formula 1 grid.
“Albon is back in the garage, while the unsavoury job of cleaning his crash helmet has gone to his trainer, Patrick,” Kravitz said. “There could not be a more unfortunate driver to hit a groundhog as his pets even have their own Instagram page. You could not find more of an animal lover.”
The timing of the crash could prove costly for the Thai-British driver. Because the Canadian Grand Prix is being run in sprint format, teams only had a single practice session to gather data and fine-tune their setups before competitive running began. Losing significant track time may leave Williams at a disadvantage heading into sprint qualifying and the remainder of the weekend.
Despite the setback, the team will now race against time to repair Albon’s car and get him back on track for the crucial sessions ahead in Montreal.
