Monday’s news that Logan Sargeant won’t be a Williams driver next year will have been a disappointment for him – but it can’t have been a surprise.
Sargeant’s place at the team was in doubt at the end of last year after he consistently failed to qualify or finish races ahead of team mate Alexander Albon. And for ‘consistently’, read ‘completely’.
This inevitably prompted questions over whether Sargeant had been fully ready for his F1 debut. Useful regular testing opportunities for drivers are thin on the ground unless they have the backing of a manufacturer who can run private outings in a two-year old car, as Mercedes are doing for Andrea Kimi Antonelli.
In his second season Sargeant could no longer rely on inexperience as a justification for under-performance. But the results are little different so far: He is 12-0 down in qualifying and 9-0 down in races. (He has fared better over the three sprint race qualifying sessions where, after just an hour of practice each time, he’s led Albon 2-1.)
No doubt life is tough in the lower end of the midfield, where Williams found themselves this year. Tiny fractions of lap time can equate to several positions. Sargeant’s lap time deficit to Albon has very slightly improved, but as team principal James Vowles pointed out recently, they need to see one driver beating the other at least occasionally to know they’re reaching the potential of their car.
Williams’ potential was limited earlier this year when a spate of crashes left them worryingly short of parts. At its worst, Albon’s crash in Melbourne left them with a single chassis, which the team took from Sargeant and gave to his team mate – a brutally tough but pragmatic decision. Sargeant has had a few prangs of his own as well, and over the following races had to use some older-specification equipment than his team mate, though to Williams’ credit they did eventually restore them to parity.
Given the quality of drivers available for Williams in a year of upheaval on the driver market, Sargeant’s position always looked shaky. The arrival of three-times grand prix winner Carlos Sainz Jnr next year will present a much tougher test for Albon.
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Albon vs Sargeant: Season summary
Albon vs Sargeant: Race-by-race
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Unrepresentative comparisons omitted. Negative value: Albon was faster; Positive value: Sargeant was faster
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