“Almost unfair” to keep Sargeant in Williams F1 seat

James Vowles reckoned it would have been “almost unfair” on Logan Sargeant if Williams had persisted with his services, noting that the American had “reached the limit” of his F1 potential.

The Williams team principal elected to stand Sargeant down and replace him with Franco Colapinto for the last nine races of 2024, although he was keen to point out that the Floridian’s Zandvoort crash was not the key factor in making the change.

Explaining the decision, Vowles felt that Sargeant’s progress over 2023 – where he managed to iron out a period of crashes and other notable incidents to get closer to Albon on pace – was worthy of a 2024 recall.

However, he reckoned that progress had not been forthcoming over 2024. Although he lauded Sargeant for “giving me 100%” at each race, this was ultimately not seen as enough performance.

“If you speak to every team principal up and down the pitlane, no one wants to change a driver mid-season. It’s horrible. It is incredibly tough on the driver, it is tough on the team, it is disruptive,” Vowles said.

“So why change it now? The cleanest point to have done it would have been at the beginning of the year. But Logan at the end of last year was starting to get within a tenth of Alex and starting to be close. 

“It was good to see his progression, and if that progression continued we would have the driver I think in a very strong place this year. It didn’t feel like the right point to cut ties and sever ties as a result of it. 

“So the reason now is straightforward, we’ve had enough experience to know that he’s reached the limit of what he’s able to achieve. In fact, it’s almost unfair on him furthermore continuing that. 

“Look at his face when he gets out of the car, he’s given you everything he possibly can and it’s not enough. He absolutely never from a human perspective did anything but give me 100% of what he was able to do. 

“But the realisation of where he is on his limits now is very clear, it’s clear to everyone.”

Vowles reiterated that it was best for both parties that they go their separate ways, rather than persist with a situation that had run its course – stating that “a clean break at that stage feels like the correct decision for all parties. It feels like it’s fair to Logan.”

The Briton also made sure that his decision was not influenced by Sargeant’s Zandvoort crash and…