Logan Sargeant failed to score points after a strong start in Las Vegas, when he was sixth behind Alex Albon: the safety car “killed our strategy “
Logan Sargeant put in a strong performance in Las Vegas: third place in third practice was followed by seventh place on the grid, the best qualifying session of his Formula 1 career. The Williams driver also stayed in the top 10 for a long time in the race, but in the end he was again without points. “I don’t think our pace was bad, but the strategy was killed. Sometimes it goes your way and sometimes it doesn’t.”
“It’s disappointing. To be honest, I don’t think we did much wrong today,” said Sargeant, who was pleased with his strong performance but frustrated at the same time that he was unable to score any championship points. “As a team, we were in 5th and 6th place after the first round, that was the goal.”
“I felt that we managed the first stint relatively well, but as expected, the faster cars came past towards the end of the stint,” recalls the US American, who was beaten by Lewis Hamilton, Oscar Piastri and Sergio Perez within one lap.
“They had a lot more grip at that point,” says Sargeant, describing the problem. “I didn’t try to fight them, but to keep the time loss as low as possible.” However, the tire wear subsequently increased massively when he was driving in “dirty air.”
Safety car has “killed the strategy “
On lap 15, the Williams driver headed for the pits to switch from the medium tires to the harder compound. “We stuck to our strategy and went for the hard tires with the plan to fight our way to the end,” explained Sargeant.
However, after the collision between Max Verstappen and George Russell, the safety car came onto the track on lap 26, which proved to be the American’s undoing. “The second safety car came out right in the middle of our stint on the hard tires, which killed our strategy. “
“I don’t think we were in a bad position until the second safety car came out and wiped out any chance we had,” said Sargeant, who believes he still had a realistic chance of scoring points until the unfortunate yellow period. “We were in P12 and were faster than a few cars in front of us. The potential was on the table!”
Unlike the competition, who opted for a tire change, Sargeant stayed on the track. “We didn’t really have the opportunity to come in and fit a new set,” explained the Williams driver. “Others did that, which gave them an advantage, but we tried to hold out until the end. “
Sargeant: “Just had a bit of bad luck today “
Even after the race was cleared, Sargeant struggled with his tires, which he first had to bring back up to temperature. In the end, he was relegated to 16th place. “This weekend we maximized our plan and implemented it well, we were just a bit unlucky today. “
Nonetheless, the Williams driver is very satisfied with his weekend, especially the good performance in qualifying. “In qualifying, I felt that I did everything I could,” recalls Sargeant. “I was happy with every lap. We didn’t do much wrong in the race either, both on the team and driver side.”
“The safety car helped some, hurt others. But that’s racing,” says the American, apparently taking it in his stride. However, he had little to say about the unusual atmosphere at his third home race of the year. “To be honest, I didn’t pay that much attention to the other things, I just tried to do my job.”
“But the music in the paddock didn’t stop all weekend,” he says. “When you were trying to work, it was a bit limiting at times.” But Sargeant’s performance in Las Vegas was commendable …
