Logan Sargeant hurting team ‘motivation’ as replacement put forward
Logan Sargeant is facing pressure to retain his Williams seat.
Bernie Collins has suggested Logan Sargeant’s frequent crashes are hurting the “motivation” of the Williams team with Liam Lawson put forward as a replacement.
In his debut season, Sargeant has frequently crashed the FW45 leading to not only a multi-million dollar bill but also a lot of overtime for the mechanics.
The most recent incident came in Suzuka when the American crashed during qualifying, causing Willimas to fall foul of a regulation in regards to how much work can be done on a third chassis and handing them a penalty.
Logan Sargeant facing pressure from Liam Lawson for Williams seat
The Suzuka crash was not the only costly incident of Sargeant’s season with the 22-year-old having problems throughout the year.
His crashes are also not exactly backed up by his performances either with Sargeant being the only driver to have raced in every grand prix and yet to score a point.
Williams’ boss James Vowles has previously maintained his trust in Sargeant but Sky Sports F1 analyst Collins believes the high number of incidents is beginning to “grind” on the team.
“There’s only so much time that a team can sustain that,” Collins said of Sagreant’s crashes on the Sky Sports F1 podcast. “James was very vocal when we spoke to him on the pit wall in saying ‘we told him to build up, we want him to get into the weekend, we don’t want him to have an accident early on’ and then still [he has] a big accident.
“That will eventually grind a team, grind the management, and it’s very difficult in one of the lower teams. The mechanics work so hard and it’s hard to keep motivation up if every weekend you’re fixing a car.”
Sargeant is the final driver left waiting to see if his contract will be extended past the end of this year and Lawson, who is deputising for Daniel Ricciardo in the AlphaTauri, has been put forward as a suitable replacement.
“我认为这不仅是我这样说,但everybody in the paddock that I’ve spoken to about it,” former F1 driver Anthony Davidson added. “Liam Lawson, what a cracking job he’s done and continued to do that in Suzuka as well.
“But if that is the end of the road for Lawson for now, then I think it would be an amazing option for Williams and one where both teams can benefit from in the short term.
“Williams can benefit from having clearly a known quantity that will jump in and do a good job.
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“He’s done enough races now in enough conditions to give people confidence and that’s what a lot of the time it is down to in a team. It’s not just one person making that decision who to put in a car. Lots of people have to be brave enough in many ways to not be proved wrong if it does go wrong.
“It’s a board decision so who are they going to go for? The better results have been with Lawson in lots of different scenarios. The guy keeps his nose clean, he’s not a crasher. He’s fast and he needs to be, he’s a methodical worker. He’s a good overtaker. He’s a team player and he ticks a lot of boxes.
“Continuing to learn in a team like Williams, alongside a great driver like Alex Albon could be a fantastic relationship and one that works well for Red Bull as well going forwards because they have the luxury of too many drivers around for the amount of seats.”
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