Williams team principal James Vowles says driver Logan Sargeant will have to show “progress” through the season if he is to remain with the team.
Sargeant is in his second year in Formula 1 with Williams after his rookie campaign in 2023.
Although the former Williams junior driver scored his maiden points at the United States Grand Prix, he finished the season with 26 fewer points than more experienced team mate Alexander Albon. The 23-year-old also made some significant errors throughout last year, resulting in several crashes, and was never able to out-qualify Albon once throughout 2023.
Despite this, Williams retained him for a second season in 2024. Vowles says that Sargeant will not be expected to achieve major results in the early phase of the season.
“It’s important to him to get good results,” Vowles said. “The only thing I would say is it’s not the early on bit.
“What we have to see from him is progress as we continue on. ‘Early on’ implies that there’s a risk if he’s not performing after three races that something will happen, and that’s simply not the case.”
Sargeant suffered a car problem in the season-opening race in Bahrain, leaving him last, before finishing 14th last weekend in Saudi Arabia, three places behind his team mate.
With 24 grands prix under Sargeant’s belt already, Vowles says he expects his driver to show continued improvement over his second season.
“In the case of Logan, he knows that he finished last year starting to build on what he had as an experience base, and he’s coming back here not as a rookie now, but someone that has years of experience behind him,” Vowles said.
“He’s got to build on that without mistakes, without error, and continually move forward.”
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2024 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix
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