Williams team principal James Vowles has confirmed a decision over whether Logan Sargeant will continue with the team next season will not be made until “the end of the year”.
Of the 20 seats on an F1 grid, the only one now available for 2024 remains that currently occupied by Sargeant, leading to the spotlight being firmly on the 21-year-old for the remainder of this campaign.
The American is the only driver who has started every race this season that has yet to score a point, with pressure mounting after being involved in a number of crashes, the most recent of which was in qualifying for the Japanese Grand Prix.
Sargeant did not help his cause by then spinning out of the Qatar sprint.
Vowles has stated he wants Sargeant to continue but that certain set targets have to be met for that to happen.
Asked as to the timeline for a decision, Vowles said: “I suspect it’ll be to the end of the season.
“I think we’ve already committed to the direction of travel we’re in, he has targets for that, and it’d be wrong to go against that decision point. So end of the year.”
Vowles believes the reason behind the number of incidents for Sargeant has been as a result of gnawing frustration that has grown as the season has unfolded, leading to him overdriving.
“The frustration has been there for many months,” said Vowles. “He went into Bahrain, and probably the worst thing that can happen, he overlapped with Lando (Norris) in Q1.
“He perhaps thought the challenge in front of him might not be as significant as it really is.
“What you then saw after that time was the gap starting to grow, and a driver that’s now frustrated. His normal tools aren’t producing the quality of lap-time that was there previously.
“He knows how to win. He’s won in Formula 3, won in Formula 2 but applying that now in Formula 1, and then not achieving results, creates more and more frustration, and then that ends up with over-driving, fundamentally.”
In the run-up to the Qatar GP weekend, Sargeant had spoken of ‘dialling it down’ in order to gain the consistency Vowles is seeking, only to plough into the gravel early in the sprint.
Vowles maintains “the pace is there”, an area the team “wouldn’t be able to fix or repair”.
Vowles added: “What happens is, when it comes down to the crunch time, there are elements of inconsistency that creep in, and in form of that, goes into an accident sometimes.
“In Suzuka, the lap he did was, line-on-line on the data with Alex (Albon), but obviously it’s marred by the fact that the last corner, he had far too aggressive a throttle application and there was a crash, and a significant crash as a result of it.
“What we’re working with him on is the progression up until that point. He dialled it from two seconds away from Alex to within a tenth in FP3. In fact, he was faster in FP3. It’s actually keeping that mindset all the way through that we’re trying to do.
“We have a responsibility to invest in our rookie drivers. We’ve put him there, and we’ve given him nearly no testing mileage. I’m used to 30,000 kilometres, not 850.
“But what we want to see is continued progress and now a focus on making sure we keep that consistency in there, which will then deliver results.”
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