James Vowles gives his verdict on Logan Sargeant’s Hungarian GP ahead of mid-season seat swap decision

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For the 11^th time in 13 race weekends, Williams Racing came away from a Grand Prix event without a point.

Alex Albon’s 9^th-place finishes in Monaco and Silverstone have provided all four points for Williams in 2024.

They can thank Sauber for having an even more miserable season as the only reason why they’re not rooted to the foot on the Constructors’ Championship right now.

Team principal James Vowles was speaking on the Williams website after the Hungarian Grand Prix about their latest efforts on track.

Vowles has already convinced Albon to sign a new contract with the team that will see him race for Williams into the new era of F1 regulations in 2026.

However, the second seat at Williams appears to be up for grabs.

That’s because Logan Sargeant has failed to convince the team that he’s the right teammate for Albon beyond the end of 2024.

Sargeant has been linked with a move to IndyCar next year, but before then he needs to preserve his seat until the end of the current campaign.

Esteban Ocon was linked with replacing Sargeant during the summer break although that looks unlikely at this stage.

However, Vowles refused to rule out earlier in the month making a switch in the second Williams seat before the end of the season.

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James Vowles gives verdict on Logan Sargeant’s display at the Hungarian Grand Prix

Speaking ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend, via RacingNews365, Vowles said:

“What we’ve said to Logan is it’s a meritocracy. You have to make sure you earn your place in the sport continuously.

“That’s been the same message that has been for 18 months really for him. And we are open-minded to things.”

Sargeant almost matched Albon in qualifying in Hungary, starting alongside each other on the seventh row of the grid.

However, Sargeant immediately went backwards at the start and although he was able to overtake some of the drivers on slower tyres, he only finished ahead of Zhou Guanyu and Esteban Ocon who both had weekends to forget.

Reflecting on Sargeant’s performance, Vowles said: “In terms of Logan, he had a poor start.

“Effectively, there’s a clutch engagement and he missed where he needed to be on target and that dropped him right back.

“But, he fought back through those hard runners quite well and his race again just really was a question of traffic and management.

“Once the blue flags started kicking in, it’s very difficult to keep the temperature in the tyre and he just dropped back that little bit more.”

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Logan Sargeant’s Formula 1 career is set to come to an end sooner or later

It would be remiss to ignore the fact that Sargeant’s performances have improved in recent weeks.

Sargeant and Albon haven’t had equal cars for much of the campaign making comparison between the two drivers difficult to draw.

His 11^th-place finish at Silverstone was so close to earning him a first point of the season but he was never in contention at the Hungaroring to get off the mark.

Williams are keen on Valtteri Bottas after courting Carlos Sainz for a long time and will be keeping an eye on how the rest of the driver’s market pans out.

Ocon even had a seat fitting at Williams recently and their interest in other drivers only highlights that it’s probably the end of the road for Sargeant in Formula 1 at the end of 2024.