James Vowles explains ‘sensible’ decision to take Logan Sargeant out of Williams car

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James Vowles has explained the ‘sensible’ decision Williams made by taking Logan Sargeant out of his car amid a challenging sophomore season as a Formula 1 driver.

The American entered his 34th Grand Prix at Silverstone but Sargeant remains with just one point-scoring finish by his name. Williams saw the 23-year-old adopt a fortuitous point back at the 2023 United States GP in P10 as Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc got disqualified.

Sargeant has rarely come close to scoring points purely on merit but did so in the British GP with a P11 finish. It marked his best result of the 2024 season so far, and he was only 9.657 seconds outside of the top 10. Teammate Alex Albon took P9 at Silverstone, 20.573s ahead.

Franco Colapinto replacing Logan Sargeant for FP1 at Silverstone was ‘sensible’

Albon enjoyed the full weekend in the FW46 to prepare the 28-year-old for the British GP at Silverstone, however. Sargeant did not enjoy the same after Williams handed his car to their junior driver France Colapinto for FP1. It left the Florida native playing catch-up all weekend.

Vowles believes it was the ‘sensible’ decision for Williams to give Sargeant’s car to Colapinto at the British GP. Formula 1 teams are obliged by the rules to run a rookie driver in two FP1s each season. Silverstone therefore gave Williams a known platform to give Colapinto an FP1.

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Albon will also have to give his car up for an FP1 session for Williams to meet the rookie rule this year. The decision for Williams to briefly bench Sargeant at Silverstone was simply taken as a move to reward Colapinto for the 21-year-old Argentine’s Formula 2 results this season.

“It was sort of a reward for a very strong Formula 2 season,” Vowles told RacingNews365. “I like recognising that we have a strong young driver programme. We invested in Logan and we’ll continue to invest in our young driver programme. [It is as] simple as that.

“It’s expanding quite significantly in the background. [Colapinto replacing Sargeant] wasn’t a showcase or demonstration or a test. It was simply a reward for a good progression. And we have to do two FP1s in the season. It’s sensible to do it here at Silverstone.”

Franco Colapinto is impressing in F2 while Logan Sargeant struggles in F1

Contesting FP1 at the British GP in place of Sargeant marked Colapinto’s Formula 1 weekend debut. He has been a part of the Williams Driver Academy since January 2023 after showing promise in the previous year’s F3 season. The Buenos Aries native graduated to F2 this year.

Colapinto has enjoyed a strong rookie Formula 2 campaign with MP Motorsport to sit fifth in the standings after 16 of the 28 races. He even took the Williams junior driver’s first podium in F2 by winning the Sprint race at Imola. Colapinto has also sealed two P2s in Feature races.

Replacing Sargeant for Williams in FP1 at the British GP could have impacted his F2 efforts at Silverstone. The session took place between the Formula 2 practice and qualifying sessions. Yet the Argentine qualified in P4 before securing P5 in the Sprint and P4 in the Feature race.

Sargeant will likely have taken notice of Colapinto replacing him for FP1 over Albon, too, as the American fights for his future at Williams. While Vowles says Colapinto getting the FP1 outing was not indicative of the situation, he has warned Sargeant to ‘earn your place’, too.