Last Updated on December 2 2023, 2:13 pm

The list of Formula One drivers who will compete next season is now complete. James Vowles the Williams team principal announced yesterday that the Grove based team would be retaining the services of Logan Sargeant but have Williams bottled the big decision they will shape their next 12 months  of racing?

Logan Sargeant has been universally criticised by F1 observers throughout the year, being the only driver besides Nyck De Vries failing to score a point all season. De Vries of course was sacked after just ten races when at the time the AlphaTauri car was probably the most uncompetitive in the field.

 

 

 

Sargeant deferred decision farcical

And whilst Sargeant finished the year with a point to his name, he collected it by default when the Ferrari and Mercedes of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton were disqualified in Austin for running below the legal height determined by the FIA.

Williams team boss James Vowles played out in public what seems now a farcical dance around the issue of his driver, stating repeatedly he was giving the American more time to prove himself. 

Even at the final event in Abu Dhabi, Vowles claimed he and the team had more data too analyse before making the decision whether to retain Sargeant or finish his Formula One dream.

Formula One is probably the most data driven sport in the world and as the cars hurtle around during a Grand Prix, lap after lap thousands of megabits of data are relayed to the pit wall and then on around the world back to the factory for instant analysis.

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“Needed more time” to analyse Sergeant’s data

Did Williams really have more information to glean from Sergeants season after the 22nd race weekend of the year? Of course not.

The whole exercise was designed to prevent the kind of media scrutiny Vowles and his team would have suffered had they made the announcement before the F1 circus retired for the winter.

In the modern era, Formula One is enjoying boom times. The teams have more sponsors collectively than ever before and the spending cap means that even the lowliest of outfits is not outspent by the big boys to the extent was historically the case.

Even so for a team like Williams generating enough cash to reach the cost cap is always a challenge and so its no surprise to discover Sargeant’s family are more than just wealthy.

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The influence of the Sargeant family billions 

Sargeant trading was built by Logan’s grandfather has the largest fleet of asphalt barges and tankers in the world. The conglomerate is worth billions with annual deals in aviation, oil trading and refinery, alternative fuels and shipping.

Logan’s uncle now heads up the operation and the ex-US Marine Corps officer and fighter pilot is known to be a shrewd operator.

Sargeant senior of course funnels finance into Williams but unlike the Mazepin Russian billionaire he seeks no glory by for example naming the team after one of his enterprises.

So Logan Sargeant is indeed a pay driver and a glance at his junior record reveals he has peers far more deserving of an F1 drive. Despite never winning a championship in his junior formula racing career Sargeant progressed remarkably quickly through the ranks.

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Logan’s junior racing results were poor

Three years racing in Formula 3 saw the American finish 19th, 3rd and 7th and his single complete season in F2 resulted in Sergeant finishing 4th a point behind Liam Lawson.

Logan had a bit of a reputation for creating damage to his racing cars and as his only F2 season drew to a close he rested due to accidents in Sprint races at the Hungaroring and Spa-Francorchamps. The in the following two rounds at Zandvoort and Monza, Logan’s feature races ended with lap 1 crashes where he was at fault.

Clearly the promotion of the American driver to replace the hapless Nicholas Latiffi of Canada was little to do with his racing pedigree and more due his families billions.

Felipe Drugovitch who won the 2022 F2 championship scoring almost double the points of Sargeant has not made it into Formula One. And still waiting in the wings are Theo Pourchaire who was second (now F2 champions) and Liam Lawson (proven Grand Prix points scorer this season).

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Williams seek to modernise facilities

So clearly Sargeant was not recruited for his talent, given those still outside the sport who clearly are more gifted than the Floridian.

“I am thrilled to be continuing with Williams Racing for the 2024 season,” said Sargeant last evening. “It has been an incredible journey with the team so far and I am grateful for the opportunity to continue developing as a driver within such a talented and dedicated group.

“We have exciting plans for the future and I can’t wait to contribute to the team’s success in the coming year.”

Of course that contribution will be in terms of his family providing the capital required for the perennially under funded historic British F1 team as they update their 20 year old production facility and other aspects of the team’ facilities which have fallen into disrepair over the years.

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F1 prize money – not enough

Vowels revealed earlier in the season that the team was aiming to spend $36 million over four years as the F1 regulations allow to renew the ageing facilities at Grove.

Yet the Williams team boss has even more cash than that in the pipeline given he petitioned the other teams to allow Williams to exceed the financial limit set by the FIA as they attempt to modernise their F1 operation.

Finishing the seventh best team this season will undoubtably see the Williams team’s prize money rise by tens of millions from 2022 when they were ‘back of the pack’. Yet this will be abnsored in its entirety into the car design and racing operations set to take place for 2024.

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New F1 record

But it is Sargeant’s family money that will bring the Williams operation into the 21st century with the hope they can compete soon for race wins and the dream like hope of a title one day.

Williams will argue it takes a rookie driver more than a year to settle into their F1 duties, but McLaren’s Oscar Piastri clearly demonstrated this season that if your good enough, year 1 can be a success.

Sargent will undoubtably perform better in 2024, but then again it could hardly be worse. Having been gifted his only point of the season by default will be something the American is desperate to erase from his record.

And so as F1 enters its 75th year for the first time the drivers who made up the grid at the end of this season, will be identical to this who forums for race 1 in Bahrain 2024.

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