Team boss James Vowles has confirmed that the chassis of Williams driver Logan Sargeant survived the crash in the first free practice session. The damage was such that the 23-year-old American had to miss the second practice session. However, Vowles does speak of a frustrating mistake.
During the previous GP weekend in Australia, Alexander Albon completely wrote off his car on Friday. And because Williams did not have a spare chassis, the team was faced with a dilemma. Ultimately it was decided to withdraw to Sargeant for the rest of the weekend and give his car to the crashed Albon. The team from Grove made this choice because the chance of points is usually greater with the British Thai than with the American.
Before the race weekend in Japan, Williams announced that the team will only have a spare chassis available again from the Miami Grand Prix, which is scheduled for early May. And so it was very important for the drivers not to do anything crazy on Friday. However, Sargeant did this and ended up in the grass exiting turn seven and then crashed into the wall. At Williams they feared the worst, but during the press conference for team bosses Vowles was able to deliver good news. ‘Fortunately the chassis is in order, but the rest of the car is hardly. The damage is extensive,” the Williams team boss revealed.
Frustrating mistake
Sargeant gave a special explanation for his crash after the second training session. ‘I didn’t realize I was at that point of the track. It was a bit of a stupid mistake,” said the American, who luckily for him lost little valuable time compared to the competition due to the rain during FP2. So Sargeant spoke of an error of judgment, Vowles put it slightly differently.
‘And what you saw here was not a driver who made a mistake, because he pushed himself to the limit. It’s a very different kind of mistake, and a frustrating one in every sense, it wasn’t at the limit of what the car could do. He didn’t know where the car was on the track in relation to where he expected it to be. “I don’t think you see the reaction of someone who was not driving in Melbourne, but a situation that could have arisen at any time,” said Vowles, who states that he has talked a lot with Sargeant recently.
‘I’ve talked to him a lot in recent weeks. These are the moments when you have to hold the driver close to you and support them,” Vowles explains. “We put him in a very difficult situation without it being his fault,” the Briton refers to Williams’ choice to give the Sargeant chassis to Albon in Australia. ‘I think he’s in a very good place mentally. I also got that idea when I called him on Thursday evening. He said he wanted to get back in the car, but not with the intention of proving to the world that he deserves a seat,” Vowles concludes.
