Experts are divided on Sargent

The news that Williams has extended the contract with Logan Sargent for another season is one that could have been predicted in advance. The team tried not to publicly criticize the American racer, giving him time until the end of the season, and believe that he still made the necessary progress. However, not everyone agrees with this.

The opinions of experts from The Race are divided – for example, Mark Hughes is not surprised by Williams’ decision, while Gary Anderson, a former racing car designer, believes that there are more promising candidates on the market than Sargent.

Mark Hughes: “Sargent did not perform convincingly enough for the team to extend his contract without hesitation. But at the same time, he is not so bad that there was an urgent need to find a replacement for him.

In a year around this time, a whole crop of interesting talents will appear, but they are not yet ready for Formula 1. Therefore, if you change Sargent now, then in any case you would have to sign only a short-term contract with someone – so why not give Logan an opportunity to apply the experience gained in 2023?

He has shown promise periodically, and now his task is to put together those glimpses of last year in order to perform more consistently in his second season in Formula 1.

Williams’ decision doesn’t surprise me at all.”

Gary Anderson: “Definitely, the decision to extend his contract is not only due to the fact that he deserves it. Let’s start with the fact that he is not fast enough, not stable enough, and besides, his accidents are very costly for the team.

But that’s not the only problem – because of him, the team wasted time. While the folks at Williams are busy making parts to replenish the inventory used up to repair Sargett’s crashed car, they aren’t working on creating new, upgraded chassis components.

Perhaps next year he will only occupy a temporary place in the team until Williams’ talent selection system offers someone else. But I am sure that there are already other candidates who are more promising than him.

However, he is the only American among the drivers in the championship, so to some extent Williams’ decision was probably made with the blessing of Liberty Media.”