Sargeant's F1 Survival at Risk: Williams Contemplates 2024 Replacement
Sep.25 - As new questions are asked about Sergio Perez's future at Red Bull, another driver further down the grid also seems to have a questionable future with his current team.
The last open cockpit on the 2024 grid is currently occupied by Logan Sargeant at Williams - who suffered another crash at Suzuka on Sunday on top of his high-speed qualifying shunt.
Some are even wondering if the American rookie, 22, can even survive to the very end of the season, including no less than two home grands prix in Austin and Las Vegas.
Team boss James Vowles is quoted by the Swiss newspaper Blick: "We will give Logan the chance to prove himself until the end of the season.
"Other drivers I can think of were given two years to do that," he added, perhaps referring to Haas refugee Mick Schumacher, who is not a candidate to replace Sargeant at Williams.
As for Sunday's crash on top of the one on Saturday, Vowles added: "It was unfortunate. Until then he was as fast as Alex (Albon). And on a track like Suzuka."
For his part, Sargeant accepted the blame for crashing with Alfa Romeo's Valtteri Bottas on Sunday.
"Of course that's my mistake," he said. "But Bottas obviously didn't notice that I'd locked the wheels."
Finn Bottas told Viaplay: "He was on the inside, but I left enough space. It was clearly his fault."
No matter what happens for the remainder of the 2023 season, many insiders can imagine that Williams will replace Sargeant for 2024 - perhaps with the well-financed Brazilian rookie Felipe Drugovich.
"Sargeant's situation is starting to resemble what happened with (Nicholas) Latifi," said well-known racing driver Toni Vilander on Viaplay.
"The guy seems to be a bit of out of his depth."
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Sargeant is costing the team too much money that could be spent on improvements to the car. I also think he is out of his depth at the moment. Maybe he needs to give Indycar a try and see if he can come to grips with those cars.
There are too many bright young stars developing in F2 and F3 who will probably make a better fist of it than Sargeant has done this year. It is becoming more and more competitive to find a seat on the grid in F1. Piastri and Lawson are two good examples of the existing drivers in F2 and F3. The queue is a long one!
Not as much as Mick last season or even Yuki in 2021, though.
Maybe people should wait until anything concrete & formal info comes out before jumping to conclusions.
We'll find out eventually, & again with Drugovich, realistically thinking, I don't see why Williams would suddenly be interested in him more than a year after his F2 championship & in a year with barely or without any active racing, i.e., if they truly wanted him, they would've offered him a drive already after his F2 championship-clinching instead of prioritizing for Sargeant at the time rather than over a year later when the up-to-date relevance is gone & racing freshness rusted.
I disagree with Vilander (who's words I already heard on post-race coverage), though, because while he hasn't set the world on fire, neither has he been a total flop like Latifi last season or certain other drivers over the years.