Sky F1's Craig Slater says Logan Sargent has “plenty of room to bounce back” after being unceremoniously left out of Williams' Australian Grand Prix line-up due to Alex Albon's crash.
Albon suffered a shunt during FP1 at Albert Park, which brought out the red flag, but although Albon was lucky to escape unscathed, it caused his FW46 chassis to be out of action for the remainder of the race weekend. did. Here things got painful for the sergeant.
Will Logan Sargent be able to recover from Williams' 'Vote of No Confidence'?
Williams did not bring a spare chassis to the Australian Grand Prix, so team principal James Vowles made the cruel decision to offer Albon Sargent's Williams to continue on the race weekend, leaving Sargent on the sidelines.
Slater claimed that Williams had given Sargent a “vote of no confidence” in the “public” spotlight, but given that Albon had made the majority of points wins for this Williams driver combination. , said he could understand why Vowles made such a decision. It remains to be seen how Sargent will react going forward.
“This is a brutal, callous, public vote of no confidence in Logan Sargent. He's a really nice young man, 23 years old, in his second year in F1,” Slater said.
“Did he deserve it? No, he didn't wreck the car. Alex Albon gets his car wrecked and is given the car of Sgt.
“But it has nothing to do with deserving it. This is what Williams team principal James Bolles is thinking. “What do we need to do to give the team a chance of picking up points? ” Well, we're going to put a guy in the car who scored 27 points to Sargent's one point last season and is consistently better than Logan Sargent. That's what I have to do in terms of what's best for the team. ”
“And remember, it's not just about two people, there's 800, 900 people involved in the factory. So it's a big psychological test in his young career and it's a big psychological test for him to bounce back from. There’s a lot of room.”
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Vowles admitted the call-up to Sargent was “one of the most difficult decisions” of Williams' career to date, but, as Slater hinted, the decision was made with performance in mind. .
“I have decided that Logan will not race this weekend and that Alex will take over the chassis and continue to represent Williams Racing on Saturday and Sunday. It was one of the most difficult decisions I've ever made,” Vowles said.
“The midfield is incredibly tight, so more than a point or two could make the difference between 10th or 6th place at the end of the season. At the moment the penetration of our car is milliseconds. It's very sad to see a driver, through no fault of his own, not race on Sunday, but I have to prioritize the team above all else.
“Logan has been great. He's here to support the team in this regard. He was obviously very hurt as a result of this decision, but I hope he understands that the team comes first above all else.” As long as you do it, you're just as strong.
“All I can say is that the chassis will be returned to the UK as soon as possible and repaired so that we can race in Japan again with both cars.”
Albon will now take part in the Australian Grand Prix alone, aiming for Williams' first points in F1 in 2024.
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