Fans SLAM team boss for 'disrespectful' comments on American star

Fans of Williams F1 driver Logan Sargeant have worked themselves into a frenzy online after a slip of the tongue by team principal James Vowles.

Speaking to Sky Sports on Friday, Vowles was asked questions about his team's decision to part ways with the American driver at the end of the season, with Carlos Sainz coming in to race alongside Alex Albon.

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In an apparent attempt to soften the blow, the Williams chief attempted to make the point that just being in an F1 seat puts him in the 'top 20' drivers in the world, but accidentally said 'top 10...top 20, apologies'.

That downgrade was taken as a slight by hundreds of fans, with one tweet reporting the sentence quote-tweeted over 200 times, almost exclusively by fans angry at Vowles – who they called 'disrespectful' and 'unprofessional'.

The level of vitriol directed at the Englishman represents a marked shift in how fans view him since his days at Mercedes, when he was broadly well liked by fans. It appears that his dealings with the under-performing Sargeant have earned him some vocal detractors.

For his part, Sargeant destroyed his car in FP3 the day after the quotes, with Sky's Anthony Davidson, a former F1 driver himself, saying: “From James' [Vowles] point of view, and from the team’s point of view, I guess what’s just happened there, brutally speaking here, it justifies their decision to swap the drivers and put a driver like Carlos Sainz in the car for next year because you have to try to minimise these kind of moments.

"Yes, it was driver error. There's no other way I can build this up: it was driver error."

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What did Sargeant fans say about Vowles' quotes?

James Vowles really went from one of the most likable TPs to flat out insufferable.. tf is his problem? https://t.co/kWaIih0UHs

— vinnie 🍒 (@seoiicon) August 23, 2024

the way james vowles keeps humiliating his own driver on the international stage needs to be studied. so disrespectful all season omg https://t.co/rs6iBKWvV7

— nat 🏎️ (@parisianarchive) August 23, 2024

https://t.co/uga2K2mE1V pic.twitter.com/dN5KLM3c0R

— weekend cancelled until further notice - 🇵🇸 (@meowscar_81) August 23, 2024

Regardless of how average Sargeant is this is just an extremely unprofessional thing to say https://t.co/2dDY7N5Zjn

— Tonto (@kobayashicore) August 23, 2024

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