During qualifying at the Suzuka track, Williams driver Logan Sargeant encountered a brief moment of oversteer as he pressed the throttle going out of the final chicane. This crash has sent him smashing into the barriers and putting him on the list, something the team wouldn’t have preferred. His crash in Japan lost the squad a fortune, totaling $1,112,000. Not only did the incident cost the team money, but it also forced them to break a 15-year-old regulation.
After the Japan crash, a rarely mentioned F1 rule from 2008 reappeared. Since 2008, the usage of extra cars in Formula One has been rigorously restricted, which was seen with Williams. Yet, given Williams’ actions during qualifying, this regulation was called into question, as after Sargeant’s incident, the team rendered his race chassis unfit for urgent repair.
In response, the team worked quickly to rebuild the spare chassis within a few hours after the qualifying session’s end. However, under F1 regulations, teams are explicitly prohibited from performing such considerable changes on their chassis in such a short time.
How did Logan Sargeant and Co. come to the spotlight?
The FIA has thoroughly limited the usage of spare cars in Formula One since 2008, signaling the end of the era when drivers could quickly switch to a backup vehicle in the unlikely event of a big crash. Instead, teams are now permitted to have a spare chassis, which is essentially the main component that holds the driver’s seat, if one of their primary race cars experiences a major failure.
Given Sargeant’s incident during qualifying at Suzuka, where his race chassis was severely broken, this rule was forced into the spotlight, demanding a swift response from Williams to repair their backup chassis within two hours of the qualifying session ending.
Following that, the FIA took notice, seeing Williams’ actions as over the line, claiming their effort to be equivalent to making a third car available. This came despite the fact that the American driver’s chassis was completely unworkable. The unusual circumstance has resulted in an in-depth discussion by the working committee, which may explore future F1 regulation revisions.
So far, the American has had several DNFs and major crashes, causing nothing but suffering for the British squad. Sargeant has 0 points after 17 races, and the incident at Suzuka may have only magnified Williams’ problems, adding unnecessary weight to the team.
Williams mulls over Logan Sargeant’s future
Logan Sargeant entered the world of motorsports with a lot of buzz surrounding his debut, as he was the only American to enter the elite tiers of F1 after 2015. Despite his speed on the track, the 22-year-old has yet to meet the expectation. His repeated collisions caused headaches for both the team and the rookie. The Williams driver himself has conceded that he has to cut down on his mistakes, the most recent of which occurred in Japan.
Compared to Alex Albon, the rookie has struggled. The Thai-British driver has kept the Grover-based team in seventh place single-handedly. Apart from that, Sargeant has failed to out-qualify his teammates, given that the average difference in their lap times is more than half a second, which is the biggest disparity between any teammate combination this year.
Sargeant’s costly errors have repeatedly ripped a hole in the team’s wallet, potentially cutting into the side’s 2024 budget. So far, only Sargeant has not signed a contract for the 2024 season, and the five races remaining might prove to be the rookie’s last chance to redeem himself. Taking things for granted will not benefit the American since there are other drivers waiting for their chance to shine and may replace the American if he fails to perform. They are, in particular, Liam Lawson, Mick Schumacher, and Felipe Drugovich.
