F1 team boss DEFENDS American driver despite poor start

Williams team principal James Vowles has come to the defence of Logan Sargeant after questions over his Formula 1 performance.

It has been over a year since the American driver joined the team, and he has struggled to make any progress on track.

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It was not until the last of three races US soil where the American who score his first – and to date only – point, finishing 10th in Austin, aided by the disqualifications of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton.

Sargeant was also comprehensively beaten by team-mate Alex Albon, who outqualified him on all 22 occasions last season – the only whitewash among team-mates last year.

Vowles addresses Sargeant future

But despite a difficult first season, the 23-year-old was retained by the team for 2024, and Vowles is taking a long-term view with the driver.

Speaking with the media in Jeddah, Vowles denied that Sargeant is at risk of losing his seat halfway through the year and will be given the season to develop. “It's important to him to get good results,” he said. “The only thing I would say is it's not the early-on bit.

“What we have to see from him is progress as we continue on. Early on implies that there's a risk if he's not performing after three races that something will happen, and that's simply not the case.”

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The Brit did however stress that Sargeant does not have a lack of experience as an excuse for poor performance anymore.

He added: “In the case of Logan, he knows that he finished last year starting to build on what he had as an experience base, and he's coming back here not as a rookie now, but someone that has years of experience behind him.

“He's got to build on that without mistakes, without error, and continually move forward.”

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