Former drivers question whether Logan Sargeant is ‘viable’ for Williams

Crashing twice at the Suzuka circuit, Timo Glock is curious to know how Williams team boss James Vowles is going to defend Logan Sargeant’s latest batch of errors.

The only driver on the grid facing an uncertain future, Sargeant didn’t do himself any favours when he crashed in qualifying for the Japanese Grand Prix.

Suffering a snap of oversteer through the final corner, he put wheels on the grass and crashed side-on, which caused significant damage to his FW45.

Williams urged to thinking about the future

So much so, that William were deemed to have built a “third car” during the extensive repairs and Sargeant was given a 10-second penalty for thatbreach of the regulations.

He served that early in the race when the Safety Car came out for his rivals’ lap 1 antics, but alas the Californian was soon in the mix himself as he got it wrong duringhis tussle with Valtteri Bottas and hit the Alfa Romeo driver.

Although Sargeant pitted for a new front wing, the damage became progressively worse, which resulted in Williams retiring the car.

Glock is curious to hear how Vowles is going to react this time around.

He toldSky Deutschland: “I’m curious to see what the next comment will be from James Vowles, who always stands behind him and says we have to give him the time.

“But there are so many mistakes that are being made that are hurting the team in terms of the budget. We have seen how the mechanics have suffered as a result.”

He added: “He made another mistake today after he took off yesterday. They have to think about how they want to set up their pairing in the future.

“With this pairing, they only have one man who is in. I don’t see Logan Sargeant being able to drive the car as consistently as Alexander Albon does at the moment.

“He is in a difficult starting position and the question is how long he will be viable for the team. In my opinion, there are enough possibilities.”

Albon has scored all 21 of Williams’ points to put the team P7 in theConstructors’ Championshipwith Sargeant yet to get off the mark.

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So what did James Vowles say after Suzuka

“In the case of Logan, his accident with Valtteri, locking up and going into the side of him, damaged the car and showed signs that realistically that car wasn’t going to move forward from where it was,” he said.

Going on to call it “bitterly disappointing”, especially as the team also lost Alex Albon through no fault of his own, the team boss said: “It is only fortune that our championship position hasn’t changed since Singapore, and that’s not how we want to go racing.”

But seemingly backing Sargeant, he added: “You become much, much stronger if you create the right environment and learn from your mistakes. And that’s exactly what we are going to do.”

Ralf Schumacher: A mistake that you shouldn’t make in Formula 1

Glock’s fellow Sky Deutschland pundit Ralf Schumacher believes Sargeant has been “overwhelmed” by the situation at Williams and that’s leading to mistakes.

Mistakes that he says shouldn’t happen.

“I’m sorry, but he’s just outmatched,” he said. “That’s actually a mistake that you shouldn’t make in Formula 1.

“He tries to use force, he despairs a little. But force just doesn’t work.”

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