Williams want Sargeant next year

James Vowles has backed Logan Sargeant as the Williams Team Principal insists they want the American driver in the car next season.

Sargeant made the step up from Formula 2 to Formula 1 this year with Williams but has so far struggled, as he is the only full-time driver on the grid yet to score a point – with all of William’s 21 points this year coming from Alex Albon.

The American’s place at the team is the only spot on the grid which is yet to be confirmed for next season.
Vowles has moved to end any speculation of the team replacing Sargeant, saying Williams must shoulder some of the blame for his patchy form.

Due to the realities of being one of F1’s smaller teams operating within the budget cap, Williams has been unable to introduce its upgrades to both cars at the same points this season.
That means Sargeant’s teammate Alex Albon has often run the most up-to-date version of the car.

Do you think the American deserves the seat for next year? Or should Williams look at other drivers?

Logan has very clear targets of what he has to hit before the end of the season, and we are working with him continuously. And that’s the important point, we are working with him. We want him to succeed, and we want him in the car next year. This is very much on us as well. We have taken someone straight from Formula 2, without any significant testing, put him a day and half in Bahrain in this car, and then wished them well on a season that has been awfully challenging for rookies, full stop. There were some very positive signs to take out. First and foremost, Logan is not on the same aerodynamic specific as Alex was. We have updates that are on Alex’s car that are not on Logan’s, due to the amount of attrition we have had this year. So, often when you see a performance offset it is not quite what it may seem on the timing pages. Furthermore, to that, if you look at the case of Suzuka, he did a build up across the weekend, as he went into FP3, he did a time that matched Alex.

James Vowles on Logan.