(Motorsports news) Sargeant has six races left to ensure his place on the F1 grid, and despite team principal James Vowles’ public support, it’s apparent that he’ll need to improve his performance relative to teammate Alex Albon while staying out of trouble. The fact that the clock is ticking will inevitably add to the strain in the coming weeks, especially when he races in front of his home crowds in Austin and Las Vegas. It’s a tall order for the 22-year-old.
When a team recruits a rookie, it expects to pay a premium while the newbie navigates the inevitable learning curve. Oscar Piastri, who is now having the best F1 debut season in many years, also struggled in Montreal and Zandvoort. Unfortunately for Sargeant, his rookie year mishaps have been far above the ordinary, and they’ve continued into the second half of the season, aggravating everyone involved.
Consider the four races that have taken place since the summer break. He raced well in Zandvoort before collapsing heavily in Q3, and he crashed again in the race, this time due to a hydraulic fault caused by a curb. He wrecked in the race in Singapore after a clean weekend at Monza, but he was able to restart.
Then, after displaying good pace in practice, he had another massive off in qualifying at Suzuka, resulting in a chassis change and a pitlane start. He collided with Valtteri Bottas during the race, resulting in a penalty and an early retirement due to a damaged floor. This run, paired with occurrences earlier in the year, has resulted in a large amount of highly expensive damage, which has slowed the flow of new parts to the track.
Furthermore, Sargeant has yet to contribute to the team’s point total, with Albon scoring all 21 so far. While Williams has a lead over Haas, Alfa Romeo, and AlphaTauri, it won’t take much for its opponents to score large, such as in a high attrition wet race. Even one championship spot lost will be quite costly.
Sargeant, to his credit, has never shied away from confessing his faults, even when life was terrible. “It had been another great day up until that point,” he commented following the Suzuka qualifying mishap. “I believe we turned the car around on Friday, and it was feeling good. It’s just been difficult with the tailwind and the rear overheating, and I wasn’t patient enough with it.” So, sure, it’s a little tricky there. But there’s no need for me to do so.”
Even though Albon admitted that Suzuka’s last circuit was difficult for him as well, Sargeant refused to assign blame, saying, “I think it was a high tailwind corner, rear overheating was there, I knew it was a difficult corner. But, in the end, it’s not an excuse.” It might have been difficult, but there was no excuse to put it off.”
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