Williams’ head of vehicle performance Dave Robson said Logan Sargeant was “desperate to get back in the car” last weekend after scoring his first point in Formula 1.
Sargeant finished tenth in the United States Grand Prix, the second of three rounds he has on home soil in his rookie season. It followed a series of frustrating results, including his mid-race withdrawal from the Qatar Grand Prix as he struggled with ill health in the punishing hot and humid conditions.“He is quite happy, as you expect, bouncy, enthusiastic, desperate to get back in the car yesterday and get back out on track,” said Robson.
Although Sargeant was promoted to the final points position by the disqualifications of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc, Robson said he had earned his result.
“His race pace was very strong and he got a good reward as a result. And now he’s looking to go and do it again.”
Following his “really very, very good” start to the year including an “outstanding” 12th place on his debut in Bahrain, Robson noted Sargeant had a tougher job on a group of tracks that were new to him and suffered from having to use some older parts than his team mate Alexander Albon.
“That probably hurt his confidence a bit. And then he sort-of came back strong when we hit the European season. Not able to get points, but still looking much better. And then we had a few rough races where he damaged the car a bit and that’s affected the spec [of his car], probably affected his confidence a little bit.” Robson said he hopes Sargeant’s confidence is “back on the way up again” after his result in Austin.
Robson said the difference between Sargeant and the more experienced Albon is “really quite small” on one-lap pace in qualifying. But Albon’s experience is making more of a difference in the races.
“I think it’s genuinely quite difficult to explain to everyone how complicated it is, and how seemingly small and innocuous changes can have big impacts,” said Robson. “And I think that’s still somewhere where he struggles to get his head around it a little bit.”
The limited practice time available in sprint events, such as this weekend’s Brazilian Grand Prix, makes life more difficult for rookies like Sargeant, said Robson. “Obviously, with the sprint events, it’s particularly difficult, because you don’t get to see any of Alex’s proper race data.”
Sargeant was classified 16th in last weekend’s Mexican Grand Prix. After a fuel pump problem meant he had to retire on the last lap, prior to which he had been running 12th.
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2023 United States Grand Prix
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- United States Grand Prix result unchanged as FIA rejects Haas’ call for review
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- Mercedes’ Brazilian GP set-up was “conservative” after US GP disqualification
Dex
2nd November 2023, 9:18
He scored the point because Ferrari and Mercedes forced him to score it. True, there are always circumstances involved; but I see no reason for enthusiasm yet. He does seem to do a little bit better now though, but there’s still plenty of work to be done to reach Lance Stroll’s level, and that says it all. I’m not sure Albon is as good as everyone seems to think (because the car is not as bad as we thought), but in any case he’s far above the young American. There are better talents outside of F1, so I won’t feel sorry if he’s gone after this season; except if he suddenly improves of course. After all, he wasn’t amongst the very best drivers in F2 last year, and it’s a pretty unimpressive generation in general. Maybe he should go back and try to deserve his second chance; but I don’t expect he’ll do that. Maybe Indy? After all, he is American.
But I wouldn’t be surprised if they keep him for another year and buy some time. On the other hand, you save on the driver’s salary, but you lose so much of the prize money. And reputation too…
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
2nd November 2023, 9:32
Yes, not impressed by the point he scored and it’s not like leclerc and hamilton would’ve been any further back without the plank issue; he looked a bit better in terms of the recovery in mexico and ofc he was right behind albon in austin, I don’t know, it might be too little too late, if you remember albon himself at red bull towards the end of 2020, in abu dhabi he had one of the best races of the year and pressured a covid-striken hamilton, getting close to a podium and I remember some comment by horner or some of the high powers to the extent that if he had started doing that earlier they’d have kept him. Sargeant still has a few races and it’s not red bull, so we’ll see; I believe he must have decent races till the end now though if he wants to keep his seat.