The 2023 Formula 1 season has been a year full of ups and downs for many drivers.
Today we will focus on the lower part of the starting grid, where rookie Logan Sargeant has had a not-so-good first year in the top category of motorsports. The American driver has shown flashes of his talent and speed in the Williams FW45, who gave him the opportunity to compete in F1 this season after a good campaign in F2 last year.
The main problem that Sargeant has had throughout this season, especially after the summer break, has been the amount of crashes he has had. He is the driver who has has given the biggest repair bill to his team in 2023.
We were able to observe the crashes that Sargeant had during the Japanese, Singapore and especially Dutch Grand Prix events, since that was a race where Williams had a very good pace both in the race and in qualifying.
However, after making the final segment at Zandvoort, the American made an extremely costly mistake, heavily crashing at turn 2.
Photo Credit: Williams Racing.
It has also been confirmed that, due to costly crashes by Sargeant, the British team has had to use older-spec FW45 parts on his car, as it would be too expensive to produce the new parts on several occasions.
Despite this, Williams’ team principal, James Vowles has made public his support for Logan Sargeant and has commented that he wants the American to remain a Williams driver for the 2024 Formula 1 season if he hits certain targets. This was what Sargeant commented regarding the statements made by his team principal.
“It’s always nice, I mean, from my side I talk to James every single weekend,” Sargeant stated.
“I knew that before anything was put on social media. It was just sort of a nice surprise, really.
“I didn’t know that was coming. But at the end of the day, I have to just keep working hard, keep my head down and try to be better.
Things had been looking really good for Sargeant at Suzuka as he outpaced Alex Albon in FP3. But he threw it all away with a big crash in Q1.
He concedes reigning it in by a tenth or two is the goal for now.
“Japan, including the lap until the last corner in quali, was my best weekend to this point, 100%. I built it up nicely, did everything I needed to, I was just too heavy on the right foot in the last corner and that’s how quickly it can go wrong,” the Floridian driver affirmed.
“I think realistically now it’s just more important to have a clean weekend and not go for every last hundredth, even it that means I’m leaving a tenth or two on the table.
“It’s consistent improvement. I think, if you take away the little mistake in Japan, I was doing everything I needed to do. But that one split second mistake ruins that entire weekend. It’s about getting rid of those [mistakes].
Sargeant added that going very close to limit but not to the absolute limit should get the required job done.
“I’m constantly working on the approach. I think if I leave a small bit of margin on the table, it’ll still be good enough.
“Japan, that Saturday was coming better than expected but pushing more than I needed to. It’s just about thinking it through a little bit more.”
