PETA call for action after Alex Albon's marmot crash at Canadian GP

The Thai driver struck the marmot on the exit of Turn 7 at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, losing control of his FW47 before a hefty shunt into the barriers. The resulting damage to his Williams was heavy enough to keep him out of Sprint Qualifying later on that day, after extensive changes to the power unit and gearbox.

Also known as groundhogs, marmots regularly appear at the Canadian GP, with Albon's crash sadly not the first time the animal has been killed on-track. Last year, Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton struck a groundhog, causing heavy damage to his car's floor. "I love animals and I’m so sad about it. That’s horrible," Hamilton said.

Albon too is a big animal-lover, with Williams team principal James Vowles telling GPblog and others after the incident: “He's okay. One of his biggest worries is that his mum will make him adopt a family of marmots, but he's okay. His frustration is that he was on the pace to Carlos this weekend, the car was looking good and he would have had equally just as much chance to be in Q3 today and that was taken away from him, from no fault of his own.

Following Qualifying for the main race, where Albon could only finish P19, the 30-year-old said: "Yeah, we have a soft spot for animals in our household. I can tell you, we have a clearer on-board camera than you guys. It wasn't that nice."

Revealing the impact of the crash on his weekend, Albon explained where he struggled during a "messy" Qualifying session. He said: "Even just procedurally, getting the lap right in terms of deployment. I don't think I did it properly once. A bit messy to be honest… on the back foot since yesterday and then that was the kind of the first proper go at low fuel and feeling what the car was like. I mean in many ways lucky to get four laps, normally you get two but still I was learning too much each lap.”

Meanwhile, animal rights organisation PETA released a statement following the incident, hailing Albon as a "winner" for swerving out of the way of the marmot, but urging F1's Canadian GP organisers to improve safety for the small furry Montreal residents.

PETA's founder Ingrid Newkirk said: "Alex Albon’s decision to swerve to try to miss hitting a marmot on the track makes him a winner. Showing both courage and compassion, he made the split-second choice to value the life of a vulnerable animal, and that wins him a place on the PETA podium."

According to PETA's website, Newkirk is a decades-long F1 fan herself, having found an injured dog that had been struck the day before Qualifying at Estoril in 1996. The animal rights group also note the support of F1 drivers such as Michael Schumacher, who helped finance animal rescues during Hurricane Katrina in the US. The Ferrari legend is also said to have adopted a starving dog he and his wife Corinna had found next to Sao Paulo's Interlagos circuit, naming him 'Flea'.