Williams team principal James Vowles has no doubt that the axed Logan Sargeant can be successful in other series.
Williams team principal James Vowles believes that Logan Sargeant can be successful in other series and win championships there after his Formula 1 exit. The American was taken out of the cockpit by Williams before the Formula 1 race in Monza and replaced by Franco Colapinto, who had strong debut races.
It is currently unclear what will happen next for Sargeant. He will continue to be supported by Williams and is expected to complete his first test in the IndyCar series soon. Although it didn’t work out for him in Formula 1, Vowles has “no doubt” that he can be successful in other series such as the IndyCar series or the World Endurance Championship (WEC). “And in all of them.”
“He is one of the top 20 drivers in motorsport, which may be controversial and may frustrate a few people, but that is the level he is at,” the Briton emphasizes in the Beyond The Grid podcast.
Although Sargeant had only managed to score one point in his 36 Formula One starts and lost all qualifying duels against teammate Alexander Albon, Vowles doesn’t see him quite as badly as the statistics suggest.
“He was only missing one or two tenths,” he says, but it is precisely these tenths that are crucial in today’s Formula 1: ‘In previous years, one or two tenths would still have kept you in roughly the right position, but that’s no longer the case. Now you’re five places further back,’ says Vowles.
“But he absolutely has the ability to be a champion in many other championships, no doubt about it.”
Nevertheless, Williams had to react and take Sargeant out of the car after an unsuccessful season. The year 2024 had already started badly for the American, as his self-confidence is likely to have suffered a blow in Melbourne at the latest.
At the time, he had to sit out the race because team-mate Albon was in his car. It wasn’t Sargeant’s fault, as the Thai driver had wrecked his own car in a crash during training – but Albon was given preference anyway.
Did his confidence ever recover from that? “If you asked him, he would also say yes,” Vowles replies when asked about this question. “He was already strong again at the next race,” he emphasizes.
“Logan gave me everything he had, but it just wasn’t the right level or the right value that we needed,“ he says. ‘It was never a lack of confidence, drive or motivation. He devoted all his time to getting faster.’
”But he just arrived at the end of the road in terms of what he could achieve.”