28 September 2023 , 15:04
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Williams' Head of Vehicle Performance Dave Robson believes Logan Sargeant's crashes have masked his 'steady improvement' - despite failing to score a point so far this season.
Sargeant has endured a rollercoaster of a maiden campaign in Formula One and suffered yet another setback at the Japanese Grand Prix. He crashed in qualifying and sustained severe damage to his FW45 which forced Williams to build a new car for Sunday's race.
The American then had to start from the pitlane with a 10-second penalty and that put him on the back foot, with Sargeant later retiring from the race. It means the 22-year-old still has not picked up a point from his 16 races but Robson believes he is improving and has made strides of progression.
"I guess inevitably, they catch the headlines, don't they?," Robson said ahead of last weekend's race in Japan, as quoted by Motorsport.com via F1i.com. I think it has kind of masked his steady performance and this weekend was actually going really well.
"It is such a difficult circuit to come to and he went about it really well on Friday, built on that on Saturday, and then lost it in the very last corner of the first lap, and really, it was quite a minor mistake.
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"It's just at that corner once you touch the grass, you're in a whole heap of trouble and it was a real shame. But yeah, I think it is fair that the crashes since Zandvoort have masked what otherwise has clearly been some steady improvement."
Will Logan Sargeant pick up a point before the end of the 2023 season? Let us know in the comments below!
Logan Sargeant's highest Formula One finish is 11th (Getty Images)Williams may face a problem if Sargeant does end up crashing again, however. This is because it might jeopardize his access to new-spec developments heading into the 2024 season.
But Robson does not think this will be the case. He said: "To some extent, you end up having to drop back on specs, because for all of the long lead items and then having to ship them around the world, it's already too late to make more new ones, really, even if you had the money and the time to do it.
"It probably won't affect next year too much, because I think we've got enough parts. It just becomes a bit of a logistical exercise. How many do we want to actually ship out at the circuit? What do we send on to the next? What do we send back to the UK?
"And so I don't think there's too much panic. We'll need to get that chassis repaired, which will consume a little bit of time at the factory. But otherwise, we've got enough bits around this that we can carry on."