The Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz driver combination that Williams will field in 2025 is one of the more interesting ones on the Formula One grid. The Grove, California-based squad confirmed the acquisition of the Spaniard just before the summer break, capping a recruitment drive that began in 2023.
However, team manager James Vowles went above and beyond the intriguing on Friday during the Dutch GP weekend. He stated, “I believe I have the best driver on the grid, or the combo of the best drivers,” explaining how “Politics is not present between them. Although they are both extremely strong rivals, they help the team grow.
Logan Sargeant is left out of this combination, despite its strength.
There are only three spots open on the F1 grid for the following season: Mercedes, RB, and Sauber. The American driver must decide what the next chapter of his racing career looks like. During the Belgian Grand Prix weekend leading up to the summer break, Sargeant declared he was “searching inside and beyond F1” for options.
Might he move on to something else, like going back to the States to compete in IndyCar with Prema Racing, a team he was a member of during his junior career? At the press conference on Thursday before the Dutch Grand Prix, Sargeant was asked if he would consider continuing with Williams as a backup driver. “It depends,” he uttered following a long silence. He did not go into more detail.
“I think in the end, nothing changes. I have 10 more races to go out, drive as well as I can for the people who are working hard for me, my mechanics, my engineers, and hopefully I can make them proud,” Sargeant said, adding that he was not particularly surprised when the announcement was made prior to the summer shutdown. After all, “it was quite public that they were trying quite hard to get him.”
Sargeant received harsh criticism during his Formula One career because, despite occasional spurts of competitiveness, he was never able to match Albon’s performance regularly. With the exception of the one point Sargeant earned at the 2023 U.S. Grand Prix after Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc were disqualified, Albon has scored all but one of the Williams points this year and last. Since Michael Andretti at the 1993 Italian Grand Prix, he is the first American to score points in an F1 grand prix.
“One of the strengths that’s underrated in his regard is he has a huge mental resilience,” Vowles said Friday. “He takes a punishment in the media, in the world, really, almost weekend on weekend. But when it comes the following weekend, he’s cleared his mind of that. And he’s here just to perform fundamentally. And he builds up to the weekend in the way it needs to be.”
Though he replaced Sargeant for next season, Vowles does feel the 23-year-old was progressing. He said, “If you look across the last 18 months, you can clearly see that from where he was to where he is now in terms of number of mistakes, proximity to Alex, where he’s qualifying and where he achieves, how many seconds behind he’s finishing now. It is all on the right journey.”
What used to be a weakness of Sargeant’s used to be how he built up to the weekend, which Vowles feels he’s become “very good at doing now.” It boils down to finding the limit; however, the approach has changed from top-down to a bottom-up perspective. Vowles said, “Because top down, when you make one mistake, you lose a session and you start to put yourself at risk.”
Sargeant’s development over time has been apparent, as he has improved his ability to manage the demands of Formula One. Over the winter, he altered his training schedule, and Vowles stated,“He’s also using a lot more of the tools that are available to him both within the car and outside of the car within the engineering systems that we have, et cetera.”
The place a driver finishes does not always indicate how far they have come. This year’s grid is more competitive, with substantially narrower margins. Sargeant has always been admired for his raw speed, and despite some criticism and conjecture regarding a potential mid-season driver switch, he has been closing the gap on Albon, especially when it comes to one-lap pace.
“We have to remember that we have the top 20 drivers in the world fundamentally competing on a world stage. And he’s ending up something akin to a few tenths off. And that’s not a large amount,” Vowles said. “That still puts you in good stead for the remainder of the world. I’m impressed with, as I said, how, when things are difficult, he can reset himself and bring it back onto a world stage.”
Top photo: Clive Rose/Getty Images
