Following his decision to cut Logan Sargeant from Williams midseason, team principal James Vowles said it would have been “almost unfair” to continue with the American beyond his last race in Zandvoort.
Sargeant will be replaced by Argentine Formula 2 driver Franco Colapinto, who is a member of the Williams driver academy.
Vowles said the decision was based on performance and his belief that Sargeant was no longer improving relative to his teammate Alex Albon.
“The reason [for the change] now is straightforward,” Vowles said ahead of this weekend’s Italian Grand Prix.
“We’ve had enough experience under our belt to know he’s reached the limit of what he’s able to achieve — and in fact it’s almost unfair on him furthermore continue with him.
“If you 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 gave me anything other than 100% of what he’s able to do, but the realisation of where he is on his limits now is very clear.”
Sargeant was set to be replaced by Carlos Sainz at the end of the year and Vowles said he was unconvinced the American would have benefitted from seeing out the remaining nine races.
“The relationship can only become more and more difficult across the last nine races towards the end of the year because he knows what his future holds, which is not to be in F1 anymore, and actually a clean break at this stage feels like the correct decision for all parties.
“It feels like it’s fair to Logan, he won’t feel that way today, but I hope he reflects on it in the future that it is fair towards him in that regard.
“Changing between back-to-back races is terrible, it really is an awful thing to do, which hopefully shows you where we are in this. And to be very clear to everyone it wasn’t just based on an accident, it was based on in the race he had all of the parts that Alex had available to him, but the performance wasn’t there, he was lacking in that area, and the gap’s almost as big as it was last year.”
Red Bull reserve driver Liam Lawson and Mercedes reserve driver Mick Schumacher were also candidates to replace Sargeant, but Vowles said Red Bull’s condition of being able to recall Lawson if they needed him was not a term he was willing to accept while Schumacher did not offer enough long-term…
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