When Logan Sargeant was handed a second chance to race for Williams in 2024, some considered even that as being too generous of the Grove team.
The rookie had undoubtedly struggled over his rookie campaign, but with the vocal support of team principal James Vowles encouraging the young American driver to “shock the world” in 2024, Sargeant was given a blank slate with which to stake his claim that he belonged in Formula 1.Unfortunately, Sargeant has been unable to make the kind of major step forwards that he or his team would have wanted. Although there is still just under half of the 2024 season remaining, it has already been decided that Sargeant’s time as a Williams driver will end by the chequered flag at Abu Dhabi.
Sargeant needed a strong start to the season to change the narrative about him after 2023, but sadly, the mistakes only continued. He damaged his car in final practice in Jeddah and then couldn’t follow team mate Alexander Albon into Q2, then crashed in practice in Japan after seeming to just drive off the track at Dunlop. In China, he was eliminated from Q1 again after a spin on the damp tarmac, then he was knocked out of Q1 yet again in Imola after having every single lap time rendered moot by either an error or a track limits violation.
Logan Sargeant
| Best | Worst | |
|---|---|---|
| GP start | 12 | 19 (x5) |
| GP finish | 11 | 20 (x2) |
| Points | 0 | |
The lowest moment of the season, however, came when he had not even made any mistakes of his own. In the third round in Australia, Williams were hopeful of competing for their first points of the season at Albert Park, only for Albon to wreck his car in practice. With just a single useable chassis, Vowles decided to sacrifice Sargeant’s car for his team mate. A controversial choice, but one with which the majority of you agreed.
After spinning out of the wet race in Montreal, it was hard not to feel as though Sargeant’s days in Formula 1 were numbered. Especially with rumours flaring in the paddock about Andrea Kimi Antonelli potentially being brought in as a replacement for the Williams driver. But after Canada, Sargeant’s run to the summer break was a clear improvement, with him avoiding any major errors and putting in the kinds of performances that his team would have expected from him in year two.
Sadly, it’s too late for Sargeant to save his future at Williams and it may be that he’s lost out on the opportunity to convince any team to take another chance on him in the future. But with ten more rounds left of the season, he at least has plenty of chances to make sure he leaves the series with his head held high.
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bernasaurus (@bernasaurus)
5th August 2024, 8:48
I would be interested to see the finances, or whatever analytics Williams use to decide that a driver from the US would be ‘x amount’ beneficial for them and then compare that to the amount of money Latifi brought. I know between Sargeant and Latifi there is takeover which changes everything. But if we’ve learnt anything from Checo and Red Bull, it’s that despite the health of the sport, all F1 teams need money.
Perhaps Latifi never actually brought that much money, or maybe he was running out of money, I don’t know. Yes, he was about 0.7 off (a very highly rated Russell) but they were occasionally on the same bit of race track, and though it’s perhaps selective memory I can’t remember him crashing too much (other than that one).
I can’t see Latifi in his 5th season picking up less points than Logan has this year (0), he was happy to play a supporting role, and if he was bringing in boats of money when it seems Grove needs a new everything, I wonder if it had been better to keep Latifi? Without the money numbers we’ll never know. At least now a new chapter with Carlos and Alex begins where drivers are seen as ‘out goings’ that represent better value.
notagrumpyfan
5th August 2024, 8:57
It doesn’t matter which one is better. Both are not good enough and should not have lasted this long in F1, but rather make way for the next potential talent.
If an F1 driver is that far behind then one season should be enough to assess talent, skills, progress, and potential.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
5th August 2024, 9:11
Agree drivers that are so far behind shouldn’t get a second season, that’s why I was disappointed sargeant did; mazepin for example didn’t and I didn’t see anyone here complain about it.
MichaelN
5th August 2024, 11:37
Mazepin would have had a second session if his countrymen hadn’t expanded their attempts to occupy the whole of Ukraine.
Haas had to scramble to ditch him and his dad’s money, leant to several legal cases.
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
6th August 2024, 8:08
Mazepin was excluded from competition just like in the olympics. The fact is the west is losing and self destructing right now, and it hates anyone better than them (plebeian excuse). They will lose Ukraine do to their doings inside of Ukraine and corruption they have helped install going back decades.
As for Logan, he was put in to F1 because of guys like Toto Wolff wanting an American driver to feature in the Las Vegas race. Its all about appearances to these peoples, its all about marketing and demographics. And money pretty much is the only thing deciding who drives in F1 these days, so you have guys like Lance Stroll with a permanent ticket in F1 while superior drivers in F2 drive far better game.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
5th August 2024, 9:09
I think latifi would’ve been better, more money and perhaps a slightly better driver.
notagrumpyfan
5th August 2024, 9:35
Don’t underestimate the money behind Sargeant.
The problem is that this money isn’t linked to a legitimate food company, and cannot easily be ‘invested’ as advertising of a coffee brands or similar.
I would not be surprised (but just speculating) that the Gulf sponsorship was linked to Sargeant’s uncle’s business contacts. Also ‘Stephens’ is supposedly linked to Sargeant.
You don’t necessarily recognise a pay driver by the decals on his car and helmet, but more by the disconnect between the results and time in the sport.
mog
5th August 2024, 21:20
Nice. I think this could be a new proverb.
And you are right, Sargeant has HUGE family money behind him
Coventry Climax
5th August 2024, 11:07
@bernasaurus
Health of the sport?
I think F1 compares very well to a person with a massive bank account, but in the final stages of a terminal disease. There’ll be an(other) heir to the estate alright, pretending nothing’s changed, but it won’t ever be the old man anymore.
Jere (@jerejj)
5th August 2024, 12:47
@bernasaurus Red Bull mightn’t be as free with cash as in the Mateshchitz days, but sponsor money from drivers is still secondary to such a big organization.
Sargeant isn’t a so-called pay driver & Latifi got sacked simply because they stopped being reliant on sponsor money from drivers, so his excessive subpar performance level in 2022 was a perfect justification for sacking after three seasons.
Last season proved that replacing him with Sargeant was definitely a good move, given how excessively the team was reliant on a single driver in 2022.
notagrumpyfan
@esploratore1 Highly doubtful.
notagrumpyfan
5th August 2024, 13:30
Yes he is!
Just not as easy to see (or ‘predict’) as his sponsorship is not as clearly linked to him as in other cases, and Williams is no longer publishing detailed financials (since they are privately owned).
Jere (@jerejj)
5th August 2024, 18:29
Which is precisely what I meant by ‘so-called’ i.e., in the general sense.
He may be indirectly, but not quite like Latifi, Mazepin, Stroll, etc., which is how people generally view or define the term.
Sumedh
5th August 2024, 9:55
I really thought Checo would get the wooden spoon
EffWunFan (@cairnsfella)
5th August 2024, 10:13
Although we’ll never know, I find it hard to imagine that Sargeant would have averaged better performances that Perez in the same car.
Coventry Climax
5th August 2024, 11:08
Nor worse.
F1 frog (@f1frog)
5th August 2024, 10:06
I think if Logan Sargeant really had been given a ‘clean slate’, then he would have raced in Australia. It seems to me like Williams had already decided before 2024 that he was a lost cause, so it’s strange that they didn’t try out someone else like Felipe Drugovich this year. I agree that Sargeant should be bottom of this list although he has been a bit better than last year and would have him only marginally below Zhou.
MichaelN
5th August 2024, 11:41
Yeah, that was a big mistake by Vowles. Albon ruined his own weekend, didn’t score any points anyway, and if the reporting was correct they even gave Sargeant the refurbished car instead of his own for the following races.
Sargeant doesn’t really add anything to F1, but the gap to Albon is much smaller now that both apparently have similar cars.
Jere (@jerejj)
5th August 2024, 12:42
@f1frog If that were the case, he wouldn’t have received a second season in the first place.
notagrumpyfan
5th August 2024, 13:30
$$$$
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
5th August 2024, 12:08
I’m guessing there’s grounds for ranking perez next, usually the car gives a little advantage and he had a decent start, but his performance has been horrible relative to the opportunities his car gives, shouldn’t be much better than sargeant this season.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
5th August 2024, 12:10
As f1 frog mentioned above, zhou is also a possibility.
Jere (@jerejj)
5th August 2024, 12:41
I don’t necessarily share this ranking.
If anything, choosing between him & Checo for the last position is difficult, especially as the former has qualified better in quite a few events, especially in the few most recent ones.
Zhou getting ranked the lowest wouldn’t have been entirely unjustified either.
However, the matter for Sargeant is simply that receiving a second season was justified, given Williams isn’t known to sack drivers hastily, not to mention several other drivers also received more than a single season despite performing comparatively worse or being more error-prone in their respective rookie seasons, even someone like Tsunoda.
Most certainly, no other team will hire him with his showings thus far, either for next season or beyond, so his days as an F1 driver are numbered for good.