How Logan Sargeant can save his Williams seat in Formula 1

to Sargent He has six races remaining to secure a place on the Formula 1 grid, and despite public displays of confidence from the team principal, james Fowles, It is clear that he will have to improve his performance compared to his teammate Alexander Albon and avoid problems.

Knowing that time is against him will inevitably add to the pressure in the coming weeks, especially when he competes in front of his home crowd at the US Grand Prix and the Las Vegas Grand Prix. It’s a daunting task for the 22-year-old driver.

When a team signs a rookie, it knows it will pay the price as the rookie navigates the inevitable learning curve. Even Oscar Piastri, enjoying the best season for a Formula 1 rookie in many years, has hit a wall. Montreal and Zandvoort.

Unfortunately for Logan Sargeant, the series of incidents he experienced in his first year were much higher than usual, much to the frustration of everyone involved, and he continued well into the second half of the season.

You just have to look at the four races since the summer break. He did well at Zandvoort, but had a bad crash in Q3, and then retired from the race again, albeit in a crash caused by a hydraulic failure caused by the pavement.

After a clean weekend at Monza, he crashed at the Singapore race, although he managed to get back on track. At Suzuka, after showing good pace in practice, he went off the track again in qualifying, resulting in a chassis change and starting from the pit lane. In the race, he collided with Valtteri Bottas, earning a penalty and abandoning early due to his car breaking ground.

This race, combined with the accidents that occurred earlier in the year, adds up to a lot of expensive damage that has affected the arrival of new parts to the track. Furthermore, Sargeant is yet to contribute to the team’s points total, with Albon adding to the 21 points Williams has so far.

Although the Williams team is ahead of Haas F1 Team, Alfa Romeo and AlphaTauri, it would not take much – for example, in a wet race – for its rivals to achieve impressive results. If they lose a place (or several places) in the Constructors’ Championship, it will be very costly.

To his credit, Sargent was not shy about admitting his mistakes, even when circumstances made his life difficult.

“It had been another great day up to that point,” he said after the incident in Japanese Grand Prix qualifying. “I think we turned the car around since Friday and it felt good.”

“But we had some problems with the rear overheating in the final sector. That, coupled with him being very aggressive, gave me a big hit. Once I got to the grass, there wasn’t much I could do. He does.”

“It was difficult because of the tailwind and the high stern temperature, and I wasn’t patient enough. So yes, it’s complicated, but I didn’t have to do it.”

When team-mate Albon asserted that the final corner at Suzuka was difficult even for him, Sargent made no excuses, adding: “I think it was a corner with a lot of tailwind, and there was overheating at the rear. I knew it was difficult.” the corner”.

“But at the end of the day, that’s no excuse. It may have been complicated, but there’s no reason to fail.”

The pit lane start, combined with a 10-second pit stop penalty due to the team infringing on the backup car, didn’t give Sargent much of a chance on Sunday.

Sargent has publicly admitted his mistakes

The first lap carnage and early safety car at least lessened the impact of the penalty and allowed him to catch up. But instead of taking advantage of that and enjoying a clean race, Sargent came into contact with Bottas, an incident that resulted in him receiving a penalty.

“From the moment I hit the brakes at Turn 11, I was stuck,” he said. “I thought he was going to see that and go inside, and he wasn’t going to make the curve there.”

“Once he got out there was nothing I could do to stop him. I tried to stop him. I thought he was going to watch it to try to stop him. It’s my fault.”

“But for his sake and for my sake, if he had gone inside, we would have avoided everything, though I think he shouldn’t have seen me.”

Sargent confirmed the details of the conversation he had with him the Vowels letter After his accident: “The message was to keep going in that race. That was my goal. Obviously both cars went sideways quickly. I just want to forget about it and move on.”

Fowles came to Williams long after his predecessor, Jost Capito, had signed with Sargeant. However, he insists he fully supports the American, and having worked extensively with young drivers at Mercedes, he understands the challenges they face.

“Logan has very clear goals that he must achieve before the end of the season and we are constantly working with him,” Vowles said in a team video after Suzuka. “That’s the important point: we’re working with him. We want him to be successful and we want him to be in the car next year. That also depends a lot on us.”

“We took someone straight from Formula 2 without any major testing, gave them a day and a half in Bahrain with this car, and then wished them the best in what was a very difficult season for rookie drivers.”

Fowles has publicly supported Sargent

Vowles also noted that Albon was ahead of Suzuka in terms of specification due to the impact of Sargeant’s accidents on production.

“We will continue to work with Logan and invest in Logan because we want him to be successful,” he said. “He’s on a journey with us, with Williams.”

“We have a young drivers program and we will continue to invest in it. Only when we all come to the conclusion that we have reached the end of this road will we make any decision. But we are not close to that yet.”

But as much as the team would like to back Sargeant, there is a bigger picture to the points and damage bill, all of which will be taken into account as Fowles and his bosses consider their options.

The good news for him is that there is no rookie or reserve player within Williams’ camp who has momentum and is ready to take his spot.

There are other drivers in the paddock, including Felipe Drugovich and Mick Schumacher, the latter likely with a little push from Mercedes. However, if Williams retains Drozovic, he will be starting over with an emerging driver, and while Mick Schumacher lost his job at Haas after a crash-filled second season in 2022, he still has a lot to prove.

Liam Lawson has also been mentioned, but it doesn’t make sense for Red Bull to loan out a guy who serves both teams and can actually take points away from them. Alpha Tauri.

Williams doesn’t need to move quickly, as there are no seats anywhere else for either candidate to fill, so Sargeant has some breathing room in the upcoming races.

Mick Schumacher has been suggested as a possible replacement for Sargent, but he still has a lot to prove

“Of course, this is not ideal at all,” he said at Suzuka of his turbulent career. “I mean in the end you don’t want to end up on the wall. So there’s not much I can say other than I’m doing everything I can.”

“I would say the hard part is knowing that I have the speed, but obviously these little mistakes cause me problems. I’ll leave it behind me and come back.”

One factor in his favor is that he knows Austin, Mexico City, and Interlagos From the FP1 sessions he completed last year. You are more knowledgeable Abu Dhabihaving completed his Formula 1 rookie test days there in 2021 and 2022, as well as performing both FP1 and the full Formula 2 weekend last year.

While small margins can make a difference, this experience will be beneficial. It is now up to him to prove that he has what it takes to enjoy a long career in Formula 1.