Logan Sargeant was forced to retire early in Qatar but had entered the race physically ailing, according to James Vowles – Difficult races ahead
It’s not that often that a rider voluntarily retires from a car in a race because he’s not feeling well physically. “You’ll have to kill me to make me quit,” said Esteban Ocon after the race in Qatar, even though he had vomited in the car.
For all the drivers, the Doha Grand Prix was physically one of the biggest challenges of their careers, but with Logan Sargeant there was only one driver who parked the car in the garage early and gave up.
“I’m not feeling so good, bloody hell,” Sargeant radioed to his team during the race. When asked if he could continue, he replied, “Yeah, I can do it.” Team boss James Vowles then joined Sargeant in the cockpit and advised him to be sensible.
Vowles: “Logan, you fought bravely, but let’s go in and stop. Let’s look at you.”
Sargeant: “James, I promise you I can do this.”
Vowles: “Okay, I’ll leave you to it, mate.”
Sargeant: “You have my word.”
But a few minutes later he couldn’t keep his promise and had to give up. “I’m not feeling well,” he repeated over the radio, whereupon his race engineer told him, “If you’re not feeling well, then we’ll stop. It’s your decision. “
Task “is not a disgrace “
Sargeant then confirmed that he had to park the car and drove into the pits. While still apologising to his team, his engineer encouraged him, “It’s okay. It happens. People can get sick, there’s no shame in that. “
LAP 42/57
A tough race for Sargeant ends ❌
The American reluctantly retires – he’s not feeling well
Hope you feel better soon, Logan F1 QatarGP pic.twitter.com/jvs4dqQB7j
– Formula 1 (@F1) October 8, 2023
For his decision, Sargeant also received backing from many pundits and fans who felt it was prudent before anything worse happened – even if it showed a perceived weakness, it was a show of strength, according to a widespread tenor.
Team boss Vowles also understands this decision and explains the background: “Logan was ill the week before and was still a bit ill on Friday,” he says in a video on the Williams website. “That weakened his immune system so much that he simply got dehydrated. “
Vowles praises “good performance” in Qatar
But up to that point he had “performed well all weekend, especially given his illness and weakened immune system and dehydration”, Vowles said.
In qualifying, Sargeant was less than a tenth of a second slower than teammate Alexander Albon and almost beat him. He then stayed quite close to the Thai in the race as well, he said. “By the time the dehydration kicked in, he was only a few seconds behind him and had fewer track limit offences than most of the other cars around him,” said Vowles.
“He built on the consistency he should be working on,” he praises.
Nevertheless, in pure results terms, the American once again brought nothing home from Qatar. Two retirements in Q1/SQ1 and one in the sprint and one in the race are the bitter results for Sargeant in Doha.
Tough tripleheader with unfamiliar tracks
He is slowly running out of races in which to prove himself. Five races are still on the schedule in 2023, but many of them are likely to be difficult for him again because the omens are against him
“Now we’re coming back to a tripleheader where he doesn’t know all three races,” Vowles said of the upcoming races in Austin, Mexico City and Sao Paulo. Although he was allowed to do Formula One practice on all three weekends last year, he was otherwise not on any of the tracks with any junior series.
In addition, Austin and Sao Paulo will again be sprint races, where Sargeant will only have 60 minutes of practice to prepare. And after the tripleheader, Las Vegas is yet another completely new territory for all the drivers. “It will be a real challenge, but one he is looking forward to,” said Vowles.
