Vowles: Sargeant is here on merit

With the 2023 Australian Grand Prix just a few days away this race will mark the third appearance of Logan Sargeant as Williams Racings 2023 driver, joining Alex Albon. For Logan this is his rookie year in F1 so his arrival has generated a fair amount of discussion as to whether he has been the right choice for the Williams team.

Logan's original signing was put in place by the teams previous Team Principal Jost Capito but now in 2023 new team principal James Vowles has had to contend with the uncertainty as to whether Logan's signing was the best for the team.

in his previous roles at Mercedes Vowles' had come across Logan.

Vowles explained: "Logan came to Mercedes as a sim evaluation driver. I was interested in looking at him because he had performance, especially when you go back to his Formula 3 performance in an average team.

"At the time in Mercedes we had a good suite of drivers. So that was where my relationship with him ended."

Sargeant would finish behind Piastri in the 2020 Formula 3 title and would graduate to F2 and became a Williams test driver. Logan was able to secure the required points that would see him achieve his F1 Super Licence but there were quite a few mistakes on the way along with some notable performances. This would leave a degree of uncertainty over Logan's potential in Formula One.

"Williams funded his Formula 2 career," Vowles explained. " Williams funded him because they had deep belief that he was the real deal."

But for Vowles there was a concern that he had been rushed into F1 too soon. But his concerns over Logan's talent turned out to be incorrectly based. Vowles spoke of how the talented US driver has shown that his performances should see him take a place with the Williams Team.

Vowles explained: "From the first laps of testing, immediately you could see that the pace was there. I was a little bit reticent in wondering whether it would take him a little bit of time to get used to it.

"His first Grand Prix, the pressure on your shoulders is enormous and he took it in his stride. He was three-wide through turn 1. Normally in your rookie race, that ends up in disaster.

"He just dealt with it, with enormous amounts of maturity. And from then onwards, and I'm sure as you'll see throughout the year, he'll step forward."

Logan's first race with Williams would see him finish twelfth the highest placed F1 rookie.

Vowles added: "My reticence came from the fact that prior to F2 that it's difficult to really judge him. Now he's been in the car, I now have the ability to look at his data.

"He is here on merit and as a result of Williams investing correctly in him. So it just shows you that my previous life I was wrong and Williams were right!"