Speaking ahead of today's qualifying session, Williams boss James Vowles further explained the decision to put Alex Albon in his teammate's car.

The move has sent shockwaves through the sport, highlighting not only the dire state of the Grove outfit - which will not have a spare car until the Miami race at the earliest, and had been relying on an Excel spreadsheet to track spares - but also seen - in the wake of the objection to Andretti's entry to the sport - as being anti-American.

"We don't have a third chassis here, that's the failing," Vowles told Sky Sports. "We have an organisation that is going through transformation.

"The chassis technology is very different from anything that has come out of Williams before, many new components," he continued. "The chassis got later and later through the winter and then it became a question of what do you push back, spare parts, chassis technology. We are nowhere near where we want to be.

"Logan did nothing wrong, across the first two races or here," he admitted. "But at the end of the season we'll be talking of a point or two separating positions. This year Alex has had the leading edge over Logan at every event.

"You have to put your best foot forward," he added. "Logan's reaction is one you would expect, he's deeply frustrated as a result.

"We hurt an individual whose job it is to perform at the highest level. In that situation, even the probability of scoring a point is worth considering, I will take every decision to make that possible.

"There are five teams that are within a point of each other because there has only been one point available for us to score. The top five teams are so competitive now that that's all that's left on the table. The difference between being sixth in the championship at the end of the year and tenth I think will reside down to a point or two. That's a large gap that we're all scrapping over.

"So with one car you have to put your money effectively in the highest probability of scoring points and in that situation, across the first three races, Alex has been ahead of Logan."

Of course, the situation has put Albon in a difficult position also.

"No one wants to go racing like this, I don't want to go racing like this," he said ater qualifying twelfth. "It's one thing to make a mistake in FP1 and then back it up and try and deliver in qualifying but to be in this situation...

"I take that responsibility on, and the significance is not lost on me," he added. "It's tough but now the only thing I can do is focus on my job, put it behind me and treat it like a normal weekend.

"So far, I think we've done a good job. The ultimate pay back I can give to the team and Logan is to now go fighting for points."

Check out our Saturday gallery from Melbourne here.