The unkind verdict on Logan Sargeant’s year-and-a-half in Formula 1 was that he performed so poorly his team replaced him twice in less than a month.
First, at the end of July, when Williams announced Carlos Sainz Jnr would join then in 2025. Then again, after his disastrous showing in the Dutch Grand Prix, which prompted his immediate ejection in favour of rookie Franco Colapinto.When Williams first announced Sargeant’s days were numbered, it was possible to look at the calibre of driver he was being replaced with and conclude that he always faced a challenge to hold onto that seat. Sainz is a three-times grand prix winner who brings almost a decade of F1 experience.
No doubt Sargeant didn’t measure up well against team mate Alexander Albon over their year-and-a-half alongside each other. But he would have needed a substantially higher level of performance to hold on to his seat against that standard of competition.
Despite the utterly one-sided nature of the contest between them, it was possible to find some cause for optimism about Sargeant’s potential. Yes, he hadn’t managed to out-qualify Albon once for a grand prix. But Sargeant had to do without Williams’ latest, lightest pieces for several races. Once the pair had parity, heading towards the summer break Sargeant had clearly narrowed the deficit on single-lap pace.
After announcing they had successfully wooed Sainz, Williams team principal James Vowles sought to soften the blow for Sargeant, talking up the progress he had made in his second season of F1. In particular, Vowles highlighted how Sargeant had reduced the number of mistakes he was making
“He builds up to the weekend in the way it needs to be,” said Vowles on Friday at Zandvoort. “And it’s not that he hasn’t progressed. If you look across the last 18 months, you can clearly see that from where he was to where he is now in terms of number of mistakes, proximity to Alex, where he’s qualifying and where he achieves, how many seconds behind he’s finishing now, it is all on the right journey.
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
“What he’s very good at doing now, which was a weakness beforehand, was building up into the weekend, fundamentally. So finding the limit, but approaching it from a bottom up perspective rather than top down. Because top down, when you make one mistake, you lose a session and you start to put yourself at risk.”
Those words came back to haunt Vowles 24 hours later, when in a damp final practice session Sargeant rose the exit kerb at turn three for too long, touched the damp crash and spun his FW46 into the barriers. With that went one of few examples of Williams’ first significant upgrade of the season, reduced to so many shards of carbon fibre.
With that, Williams couldn’t justify being patient with him any longer. Sargeant’s tone after the race made it plain that either he had been told what was coming, or he could see the writing on the wall.
Sargeant’s performance against Albon, 2023-24
Head-to-head
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
Qualifying deficit
Unrepresentative comparisons omitted. Negative value: Sargeant was faster; Positive value: Albon was faster
Race-by-race: 2023
Tick: Sargeant finished ahead; Cross: Sargeant finished behind; Line: No comparison available
BAH | SAU | AUS | AZE | MIA | MON | SPA | CAN | AUT | GBR | HUN | BEL | NED | ITA | SIN | JAP | QAT | USA | MEX | BRZ | LAS | ABU | ||
Sargeant | Q | ||||||||||||||||||||||
R |
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
Race-by-race: 2024
BAH | SAU | AUS | JAP | CHI | MIA | EMI | MON | CAN | SPA | AUT | GBR | HUN | BEL | NED | ||
Sargeant | Q | |||||||||||||||
R |
Miss nothing from RaceFans
Get a daily email with all our latest stories - and nothing else. No marketing, no ads. Sign up here:
Formula 1
- Horner controversy “for sure had a negative impact” on Red Bull staff
- Interlagos must improve “very bad” new track surface for 2025, say F1 drivers
- “That’s how we silence them”: Verstappen’s stunning Brazil win from start to finish
- Verstappen now has as many wins as F1’s first six world champions combined
- Drivers tell Ben Sulayem to watch his “tone” and reveal who benefits from fines
Armchair Expert (@armchairexpert)
29th August 2024, 7:28
Meanwhile Albon himself was 0-17 against Max and on average 0.5s per lap slower, so you can only imagine how much more speed there was in BOTH Williams cars.
Dex
29th August 2024, 12:16
Sargeant should replace Checo for the rest of 2024.
CarWars (@maxv)
29th August 2024, 14:22
Yes, that is the statistically logical conclusion. Hornie will look into it. Probably will need to get rid of Max.
MichaelN
29th August 2024, 16:11
Yes, and of course the two Williams cars are rarely the same.
It’s close to impossible to compare drivers in that team.
MacLeod (@macleod)
29th August 2024, 7:41
Probally the worst paid driver I have seen never finished ahead of his teammate in Qualy or race. He should be dropped at the end of 2023 as it was clear he was no talent what so ever.
Christopher Rehn (@chrischrill)
29th August 2024, 7:58
I mean, he was 4th in his rookie season in F2.
I rate Sargeant above drivers like Mazepin, Sakon Yamamoto, Rio Haryanto, Lucas di Grassi, and several others who raced in the last 10-15 years.
Mooa42
29th August 2024, 8:45
Heading into the final race F3 in 2020 Logan was tied for 1st in the championship with his team mate, (Oscar Piastri) before being involved in a first lap incident which meant he finished the season 3rd behind Oscar Piastri 1st, Theo Pourchaire 2nd and with Liam Lawson finishing 4th.
Interesting that 3 of those 4 have competed in an F1 race.
Admittedly it was his 2nd year in F3 but maybe the reason they kept him for 2 years in F1?
Nick T.
29th August 2024, 9:02
He also tied Lawson in F2 while he was a rookie and Lawson was in his second year. They were in the same team too.
Anyway, while he was terrible, it’s literally absurd to say he’s anywhere close to the worst pay driver.
CarWars (@maxv)
29th August 2024, 15:14
going up the stack to F1, everything is faster and more complex. Sargeant couldnt keep up with his 4×86 cpu.
Craig
29th August 2024, 8:19
Trust me, there’s been considerably worse pay drivers then Sargeant and he warranted a space on the grid far more then Latifi ever did.
notagrumpyfan
29th August 2024, 11:46
Sargeant is a ‘pay driver’, just the source of the money (his uncle’s business dealings, and Logan father’s financial links to that) is not so keen on publicity.
“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.”
Dex
29th August 2024, 12:35
Latifi wasn’t faster on average, but he had his moments when he was very close to Russel or Albon. That happened only a handful of times per season, but enough to score some points or at least be close to scoring points. He was a far more useful driver, I’ve no doubt about it. And yes, he didn’t deserve to be in F1 either.
Jere (@jerejj)
29th August 2024, 8:43
@macleod Dropping after only a single season would’ve been hasty & unfair, given how many drivers over the years have had comparatively worse rookie season & still received a second season or more.
Craig Spot-on concerning Latifi.
He was indeed even worse than Sargeant, especially in 2022, so the change after that season was totally justified.
Maisch (@maisch)
29th August 2024, 7:50
The “Laps ahead” stat is mind boggling, at least he got the seat time to be able to improve, though it didnt help.
Nulla Pax (@nullapax)
29th August 2024, 8:46
I wondered how many of those were because Alex had been pitted first etc.
Christopher Rehn (@chrischrill)
29th August 2024, 10:03
Well Albon started behind Sargeant at Zandvoort. I don’t know what lap he passed him, but he finished well ahead of the American.
Jere (@jerejj)
29th August 2024, 12:12
@chrischrill On the opening lap
Bruno
29th August 2024, 12:22
Albon passed Sargeant just as the lights went out.
Prab
29th August 2024, 12:53
Great lad, tried his best.
Good luck to him for the future.
Edvaldo
29th August 2024, 14:25
Keeping him just to be massively disappointed is part of Vowles growth as team principal.
He wont be making a similar mistake again.
Derek Edwards
29th August 2024, 15:19
If you count Australia then it’s the third time they have replaced him in six months.
t1redmonkey (@t1redmonkey)
29th August 2024, 16:05
Made no sense keeping him going into the start of this season, it was inevitable he had no real future in F1 unfortunately. Williams really should’ve made the change before Bahrain. Oh well, better late than never.
sumedh
29th August 2024, 17:13
Since we are discussing stats, here’s a fun one. Prior to Logan, Stoffel Vandoorne ran the #2 car in F1. Vandoorne was 0-26 down against Alonso in qualifying in his last 26 races (After 2017 Malaysian Grand prix till the 2018 Abu Dhabi grand prix).
So, car #2 is effectively 0-57 down in qualifying since 2017.
Jere (@jerejj)
29th August 2024, 19:58
Good stat
Niefer (@niefer)
30th August 2024, 7:56
Wow!