Williams have confirmed that Alex Albon will drive Logan Sargeant’s car for the remainder of the Australian Grand Prix weekend. This comes after a heavy crash for Albon’s FW46 that happened in FP1 at Albert Park on Friday. F1 expert Karun Chandhok claims that the Grove-based team’s decision to give Sargeant’s car to Albon is a brutal one. But at the same time, the Indian expert feels that it is the right thing to do for Williams to have a chance of scoring points in Melbourne.
Chandhok tweeted, “As I said in commentary soon after we learned of the chassis damage, it’s a brutal call to make on Logan Sargeant but it’s absolutely the right one. James Vowles showing strong and bold leadership by getting the driver who has the most chance of scoring on the grid”.
Albon was on course to Turn 7 in FP1 when he had contact with the wall and suffered major damage to his monocoque. The crash also resulted in some damage to the engine and the gearbox of his car.
The extent of the damage is such that Williams have cited that they cannot repair the car overnight at the track. Moreover, they also don’t have a spare chassis to build up and get the second car ready for Albon to drive.
Therefore, they had to make the tough choice of choosing either Albon or Sargeant to drive the remaining FW46 for the rest of the weekend. Since the Thai driver is the more experienced driver and has a better chance of scoring points, James Vowles and Co. decided to give him the go-ahead.
This means Logan Sargeant won’t take part in the rest of the Australian GP weekend and Williams will race with only one car. About this tough decision, Sargeant said that this is the “hardest moment” in his career so far. However, he is completely in favor of the decision and wants the team to maximize what they can achieve this weekend.
Why is Logan Sargeant on the sidelines for a mistake Alex Albon made?
Ever since Logan Sargeant and Alex Albon became teammates, it has been the Thai driver who has scored almost all of the team’s points. In 2023, Sargeant only managed to score a single point relative to Albon’s 27.
Thus, Williams may have looked to place their bets on the former Red Bull driver again in this tough situation in Australia. Back in 2022, Albon almost did the entire race on hard tires and ran as high as P7 at one stage.
He then eventually made his mandatory pit stop on the last lap of the race to score a point and finish P10. It is this kind of tenacity and determination that the 27-year-old brings to the table and propels Williams to some stellar results.
James Vowles would hope Albon does something similar this weekend. As per an official tweet by the team, the Williams boss said that it is unacceptable in modern-day F1 to not have a spare chassis and they understand that. But at the same time, it is a reflection of the team’s inefficiency with car development and production that gave rise to such a situation.
Vowles has explained earlier that over the winter they had to undergo a systemic overhaul of their design and development processes. Thus, simultaneously the development of their 2024 car suffered. Even Alex Albon highlighted this aspect at their car launch to temper expectations for the season’s start.
Hence, there is no doubt that Williams is currently on the back foot. Albon was grateful to Sargeant and empathized with him as the American will have to sit out this weekend. The #23 driver appreciated Sargeant’s professionalism and attitude as a team player and hoped that he can maximize a good result from this weekend.
