Sargeant not safe from mid-season dismissal – Williams

Williams team principal James Vowles has not ruled out replacing Logan Sargeant this season, emphasising the need for him to “earn” his place in the team.

The American driver will make way for Carlos Sainz at the end of 2024, but he may still find himself sidelined prior to that point.

Sargeant has struggled to adapt to life in F1 since stepping into his seat at Williams last year. Whilst he took his maiden point at the United States Grand Prix last year, he was outscored by team-mate Alexander Albon 27 to one across the season.

Despite facing calls to replace him, Vowles stuck by him for another season. 

However, results have not sufficiently improved, and with a racer of Sainz’s calibre available, Williams had to act.

Although, that does not mean Sargeant is safe from being jettisoned out of the team during the second half of the current season.

“What I’ve said before is this: ‘earn your place’,” Vowles told media including RacingNews365. “And [at] Silverstone [and] Budapest, he earned his place. [At Spa-Francorchamps] I need him to do more… but I’m not going to make a decision from one race to the next.

“What I don’t want to sit here and say is ‘Logan absolutely has a place nailed forever in the situation’, earn it – as I have to earn my job, as Alex has to earn his job at the same time.”

Sargeant needs to be ‘matching’ and ‘pushing’ Albon

The current F1 campaign has proven difficult for not only Sargeant, but for Williams as well. 

After the relative success of last term, when it finished the year in seventh, it now finds itself second from bottom in the constructors’ table.

Upgrades were delayed early in the season after a string of costly accidents set the team back in both budgets and resources.

When Albon destroyed a chassis during practice for the Australian Grand Prix, it came to light the team did not yet have a spare one produced. 

This forced Vowles into the awkward position of electing Sargeant to sit aside for the remainder of the weekend, handing his car to his team-mate in the process.

Albon has achieved just two points-scoring finishes, coming home ninth in both Monaco and Silverstone. Meanwhile, Sargeant is yet to get off the mark.

“My job is to do the absolute best that I can for him [Logan Sargeant]. Because, ultimately, if we’re scoring points, we need both drivers on song for doing so,” Vowles added.

“In terms of where he was [at] Silverstone [and] Budapest, he was where we need him to be in terms of growth pattern – that’s what I’m looking for…

“The best I can put it to you is he knows where he needs to be, and where that is, for complete transparency, is he has to be matching Alex [Albon], pushing Alex along every time and we’re not there yet.”