Alex Albon Was Trying to Guide Logan Sargeant Overcome Williams’ Problems While Racing

Logan Sargeant’s poor form from 2023 hasn’t particularly improved this season. Like almost every F1 race he has taken part in, the American driver continued to struggle to find the right balance in his car at Imola. That was when his teammate Alex Albon came to the rescue. He asked the Williams pit wall to relay some crucial information to Sargeant to help him amid the misery.

In an F1 car, a driver has to adjust the brake migration, balance, and differential, which can be different for different corners in a circuit. Finding the right one for each can be tricky as the track begins to evolve as the race progresses. Sargeant found it difficult to do the same on turn seven in Imola on Sunday.

Upon learning about Sargeant’s woes, Albon told the Williams pit wall,

“I don’t know if it helps Logan, but just run at a really low BMIG (Brake Migration) and then just use a rotation to go up to [Turn] 7. But the lower the BMIG the better. Run it at 58%. If he’s struggling with understeer in turn 7, go wide. It’s better.”

ALEX ALBON I LOVE YOU pic.twitter.com/J5toxfZL1p

— emi (@SARG81NT) May 19, 2024

It is unclear how much this suggestion helped Sargeant as he finished the Emilia-Romagna GP in P17. Albon himself didn’t fare much better as he retired his car before the chequered flag.

The Thai-British driver was delivered a severe blow when his front-right tire was fitted loosely during his first pit stop. He had to hobble back into the pits to change it, and also serve a 10-second time penalty which put him more than a lap behind almost every driver in the points.

After serving what became just a test session for him, Alex Albon retired his car on lap 51.

Logan Sargeant on the verge of losing his Williams seat

With 28 points in 2023, Williams successfully pulled itself out of the bottom of the standings to finish P7. Sargeant’s contribution to that, however, was just one point.

Williams overlooked this and decided to give the Fort Lauderdale native another chance, hoping to see improvement in 2024. That, unfortunately, hasn’t happened so far. Sargeant remains point-less in seven races and isn’t showing signs of getting better.

What is more concerning is the damage the 23-year-old has caused through his habit of crashing the car. Last year, Williams bore repair bills worth $4.3 million, an amount that has further soared in 2024.

COST OF CRASHES PER DRIVER

Sargeant’s salary was 1M$; but he cost an additional 4.3M$ in crashes!
Even worse, the driver’s salary is not counted under the budget cap, but the cost of crashes is!

VER obliterated PER also concerning crash costs: starting first helps!#F1 pic.twitter.com/2n922oT5l8

— Formula Data Analysis (@FDataAnalysis) December 6, 2023

Williams Team Principal James Vowles didn’t openly state that they will sack Sargeant but admits that he is at risk. Keeping the team’s long-term goals in mind, Vowles has to decide his line-up soon as he looks to steer the team into a more successful era.