Logan Sargeant’s 2024 season went from bad to worse after a massive shunt during FP3 at the 2024 Dutch GP. The Williams driver touched the grass at the exit of turn 4, in wet conditions, and slammed his FW46 into the right-hand side barriers.
Sargeant‘s stricken Williams was then engulfed in flames and he did not take part in qualifying later that day. The repair bill is now estimated to be in the millions. But according to former F1 mechanic, Marc Priestley, the damage is more than just about money.
Sargeant has suffered several crashes already this season. One of his big shunts happened in FP1 of the 2024 Japanese GP weekend. As things stand, the American driver has racked up a repair bill of over $3 million for the Grove-based team. According to Priestley, this is money spent in the wrong direction.
The Briton explained on his YouTube channel, “That’s millions of dollars out of a very tight budget in F1 these years where if you are spending money on rebuilding cars — you’re not able to spend that same money on development, on bringing new upgrades and making the car go faster.”
Williams is already a cash-strapped team. Further, with such massive repair bills, the team is not able to focus their resources on 2025 and beyond — which will be crucial for the team given Carlos Sainz has signed a multi-year deal with them from 2025 onwards.
Sargeant could ruin Sainz’s Williams debut
The Grove-based team already find themselves in a precarious situation. They are only ninth in the constructors’ championship this year with just four points to their name. The car has been draggy and not in line with their ambitions of fighting in the upper echelons of the midfield.
Moreover, Sainz’s signing is crucial for Williams to rebuild their glorious past. The Spaniard was promised rapid developmental progress when James Vowles was pursuing him for the 2025 seat.
Vowles told Sainz about the several engineers’ hiring and overhaul of their technical processes which will enable them to take a good step forward in the next two to three seasons.
However, this latest financial setback could cost the British team months of development time and ruin certain key aspects of their 2025 car.
