Logan Sargeant suffered a frustrating Austrian Grand Prix after colliding with Lance Stroll on the opening lap.
The American damaged the front wing of his Williams before finishing 19th, two laps behind race winner George Russell.
Sargeant said he lacks raw speed in his Williams as he gets to the midpoint of a second consecutive season filled with frustration.
“I think, generally, we’re just missing a bit of pace in the car. That doesn’t help either.
“We’re not able to push ourselves up the grid in qualifying, which is what we need to be doing. And that always makes your Sunday more difficult.
“It was a good step forward from the Sprint race yesterday. The changes we made definitely helped the car for the race. I would have liked to have just been in it and seeing what we had. But to go out on Lap 1 is frustrating.”
Sargeant clattered into Stroll at Turn 3 after hovering in the middle of the track and floating towards the outside as they approached the apex.
The 23-year-old missed the apex of the hairpin as Sauber’s Valtteri Bottas sat on his inside. Sargeant’s left front tyre touched Stroll’s rear right tyre in the incident.
The contact won’t have eased the pressure on the American, who has failed to live up to expectations, consistently floundering behind his teammate Alex Albon.
Both Sargeant and Stroll continued after the contact as the former told his team he damaged his wing on the radio.
The Williams driver said he was eager for the Safety Car to be deployed after damaging the car, and he stepped forward from Saturday’s Sprint Race despite the difficult race.
“It doesn’t help when you take your front wing off on Lap 1. From there, just praying for a Safety Car. I did my best to keep a relative good pace, and I think we did that. I think it was a good step from yesterday in terms of where the car was at. Just not the afternoon I was hoping for.”
Sargeant will be hoping for a better weekend at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, a track he won at will driving in FIA F2 and Formula 3.
