In the round-up: Williams team principal James Vowles says Logan Sargeant has improved his performances this season, despite the team’s decision to replace him.
In brief
Sargeant still improving – Vowles
Williams announced on Monday that Carlos Sainz Jnr will replace Sargeant in their line-up next year. However Vowles said their outgoing driver has raised his game in recent rounds.
“Logan is a part of the Williams Academy, he’s one of the 20 best drivers in the world on the Formula 1 grid, and over the last few races, I hope you can see the progress that he has been making with the team,” he said in a video released by the team.
“We have a responsibility towards him. He is still a professional racing driver. He’s earned his place in motorsport and we’ll do what it takes for him in order to be a professional racing driver in his future career.”
Current field “elite” – Hamilton
Lewis Hamilton describes the strength of the current Formula 1 field as “elite” with over half the field having at least one grand prix victory.“It’s really fantastic, I think, for the sport to be having such close teams and drivers,” Hamilton said.
“The pedigree of drivers at the top today are really elite and amazing. We didn’t expect to be competing with the McLarens or the Red Bulls at this point in the season, with how we started off. So for us to now have closed up, it’s going to be one hell of a second half of the season for sure.”
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
Links
Explosion at Germany's Nürburgring injures at least 22 people (Yahoo)
'At least 22 people have been injured in an explosion in the paddock area at the Nürburgring motor-racing track in Germany - on the evening before the six-hour Ruhr Cup race. One person suffered severe injuries and three others were seriously injured, police said. According to initial findings, the explosion occurred shortly after 6pm on Friday behind a pit lane, and is believed to have been caused by a pressurised gas cylinder.'
Supercars protégé raises hand for all-female F1 Academy (Speedcafe)
Imogen Radburn: ''We're hoping next year to be in the F1 Academy. Obviously it's a very difficult path to get into. There are no Aussie girls over there at the moment, so to be the first one would be unreal – but it's getting there and knowing who's gonna support me to back me. It all comes with a price and it's not cheap. That's my aspiration for next year or the year after, but preferably next year.''
SF Full Access - 2024 Belgian GP | Pole position, a podium and 23 points (Ferrari via YouTube)
'Join Charles Leclerc, Carlos Sainz, and the team as they take a trip to Spa-Francorchamps.'
NASCAR 25 Dev Diary: Ep 01 (iRacing via YouTube)
The iRacing development team offer a first update about their upcoming officially licensed, standalone NASCAR simracing title set to be released next year.
We always endeavour to credit original sources. Got a tip for a link relating to single-seater motorsport? Please send it to us via the contact form.
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
Social media
Notable posts from X (formerly Twitter), TikTok and more:
Team, thank you for your support so far this year.
We'll see you after the summer break 💙 pic.twitter.com/yZr1gYYkEF
— BWT Alpine F1 Team (@AlpineF1Team) August 3, 2024
Meet Michele. He 💚's tyres as much as we 💚 green pic.twitter.com/FE0CFFPjDt
— Stake F1 Team KICK Sauber (@stakef1team_ks) August 3, 2024
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
- Find more official F1 accounts to follow in the F1 Twitter Directory
Comment of the day
Who has been the better performer at Mercedes between Lewis Hamilton and George Russell? DavidBR has their say…
Russell is Hamilton’s strongest team mate since Fernando Alonso. Fast, consistent, hard racing, totally unfazed about competing against a 7-times champion. Mercedes should be content with him as their lead driver next year. I also think that in a title race, he’d be exceptionally strong-minded and once a world drivers’ champion, would improve just as Max Verstappen did.
That said, Hamilton is now in the ascendancy but is not yet back to his past levels of consistency and speed, especially over one lap. The question for me is whether this is good as it gets now for Hamilton or whether he can reach his past levels again. We might find out in the second half of the season if Mercedes continue at or near the front. Or it might be a year or two into his time at Ferrari. Or maybe 2021 was the peak.
As drivers become dominant (and/or older) they seem to lose their audaciousness. Russell still has that and if, say, he and Lewis are competing at the front in races this season, I suspect it might give him the edge – as he showed tactically in the failed attempt to win at Spa with the one-stop decision, but also in overtaking Hamilton at Canada for 3rd. That showed their different level of sharpness. I’m not yet convinced Hamilton has that back.
DavidBR
Happy birthday!
No RaceFans birthdays today
Nick T.
4th August 2024, 0:29
Logan is dominating Checo since Monaco. Maybe RBR will pick him up. If Max left, we could see a dynamic Perez-Sargeant lineup for 2025.
notagrumpyfan
4th August 2024, 0:46
But don’t forget that also Checo is “one of the 20 best drivers in the world on the Formula 1 grid”!
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
4th August 2024, 0:58
Ahah, yes, I don’t believe it one bit that just because there’s 20 drivers in f1 they’re the best of the world; I think if you gave 5 trial races to many other high level drivers in other motorsports, some of them will already outperform the worst f1 drivers by then.
notagrumpyfan
4th August 2024, 8:54
But those ‘other high level drivers’ are not “on the Formula 1 grid” ;)
Nick T.
4th August 2024, 9:14
“One of the 20 most experienced F1 drivers in the world!” is Checo’s most elite claim.
notagrumpyfan
4th August 2024, 10:39
Few drivers have more experience in seeing helmets at the start.
He is almost in the top 5 on the list of total amount of drivers starting in front of him, with 2404 driver-starts ahead.
He can still beat though:
– Trulli 2417 (Horner just gifted him this one);
– Barichello 2571 (might have to wait until next year to beat this);
– De Cesaris 2796 (depends how deep Carlos Sims pockets are);
– Button 2990;
– Alonso 3002 and counting.
rprp
4th August 2024, 21:29
“Logan is … one of the 20 best drivers in the world on the Formula 1 grid”
I suppose you can parse that so it’s factually correct.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
4th August 2024, 0:59
As for comment of the day, I don’t believe for 1 second that hamilton’s peak season was 2021, too many mistakes, he must’ve had some better season.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
4th August 2024, 1:00
Surely 2018 was better, it was one of the rare seasons where he didn’t have those off-the pace races that happened for example in 2017.
David BR (@david-br)
4th August 2024, 1:57
[Thanks for COTD!]
@esploratore1 Badly phrased, I just meant maybe 2021 was a high point before a steady decline, not necessarily Hamilton’s best year. Though I think it’s up there given he and Verstappen – perhaps his most talented rival – were both driving way ahead of everyone else throughout the season, mistakes (from both) aside. We have to factor in the intense pressure they placed on each other. Had the last few laps at Abu Dhabi gone differently and Hamilton had won an 8th title, I think it would be evaluated quite differently.
SteveR (@stever)
4th August 2024, 1:43
Well, Jamie Chadwick is doing it the right way, in my opinion, winning a race on merit in Indy NXT. I’m not sure separating the sexes is the way to do it…. Okay, slag me. But still, Indy has been way more welcoming to women drivers for decades and they have shown real pace. I’s really like Chadwick to advance to Indycar.
X1Znet (@x1znet)
4th August 2024, 1:50
I disagree with COTD saying that
: Nico Rosberg won the WDC in 2016 so that makes him stronger than Hamilton that year.
Nikos (@exeviolthor)
4th August 2024, 6:39
Rosberg was never as strong as Hamilton, but he was indeed very close to him.
In 2016 Hamilton had some bad luck, but Rosberg was strong enough to take advantage of this.
Overall, I think that Rosberg is underrated.
Nick T.
4th August 2024, 9:17
Rosberg is highly underrated. I’d pick him to beat Russell had they been paired rather than Nico and Lewis. But, alas, we can never say for sure. There is often a big difference between how drivers perform in the best car on the grid and a car that ranges from 4th to 2nd best across a season.
SteveP
4th August 2024, 10:10
IIRC Rosberg and Hamilton were close competitors from early karting days on through.
Rosberg beat Hamilton in competition in one year, and then retired.
David BR (@david-br)
4th August 2024, 13:20
I agree Rosberg is underrated but still think Russell is the stronger driver, slightly faster and more aggressive/hungry. Some of that may be down to team dynamics, Hamilton brought in to Mercedes as the star championship-winning driver (which, however equally they were treated,, wasn’t much of a vote in favour of Rosberg), Russell brought in to learn from and eventually replace Hamilton.
Aquila_GD
4th August 2024, 13:10
The thing people should be saying here is that Hamilton is the strongest teammate Russel has ever had. I am amazed at how people want to almost use Russel as a yardstick.
Hello, Hamilton is the yardstick/benchmark for the whole grid.
He is the fastest and most successful driver ever and is a 7 time world champion.
Russel driving has no doubt benefitted from that and even now Hamilton still shows that he is ahead of him when the car is good enough.
David BR (@david-br)
4th August 2024, 13:24
The original comment (mine) implied Alonso was the strongest. Also it was a response to the team mate comparisons for 2024, not an intention to use GR as some kind of yardstick. For me, those are Hamilton, Alonso and Verstappen, to take the drivers currently racing in Formula 1.
Jere (@jerejj)
4th August 2024, 5:15
For now, he may still be a Williams(-associated) driver, but of course, not beyond this year, just like Latifi at the time.
Janith
5th August 2024, 3:55
He has made very good progress going from 0-21 vs Albon to 0-33 against Albon.