The 2024 Formula One season has been dominated off track with back door conversations between teams and drivers like none in recent history. At least two of the current field will be leaving the sport given rookie Oliver Bearman has been confirmed by Haas F1 and Dr. Helmut Marko insists Liam Lawson will be full time in an RB car either before the season finale or certainly for 2025.
Yet despite Lewis Hamilton kicking off the ‘silly season’ before a wheel turned in anger, matters have dragged on to the point where the normal time frame for deciding on next years driver line up has resumed.
With just two races before the summer break is upon us the pieces of the jigsaw are set soon to fall intro place. The drama in 2022 began with Sebastian Vettel announcing his retirement at the last race before August, then just one day after the summer break began Fernando Alonso decided he was leaving Alpine for Aston Martin.
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Alpine went into meltdown announcing Oscar Piastri as their new driver for the following season only to be rebuffed hours later on X by the young Australian. The remaining places to be decided this season will not provide for such entertainment as when Alpine took their case to the FIA tribunal for contracts, yet for the likes of Kevin Magnussen the news of his future in the sport may not be good.
One driver almost certain to be disappearing from the grid is Logan Sargeant and this despite the tens of millions he brings to a team prepared to allow him to drive their car. The American proved iffy in his rookie year in 2023 scoring just a single point all season and only then because Hamilton and Leclerc were disqualified in Austin Texas.
His second year with Williams has seen the Florida born driver fail to improve meanwhile his team mate Alex Albon has already been awarded a multi-year contract to drive for the British racing marque. So when team boss James Vowles declared in Canada that “Carlos Sainz is Williams number one target,” the writing on the wall became ever more vidi for Sargeant.
The team mate comparison in qualifying is 12-0 to Alex Albon, although the American has the better results in the shorter version of the Sprint 2-1. Last season Albon won all 22 rounds of Grand Prix qualifying which was the only whitewash amongst F1 team mates that year.
Sargeant under continuous ‘evaluation’
Sargeant has also cost the team financially with the number of times the car has not finished the weekend in one piece and despite Williams now claiming their sponsorship levels are sufficient to spend up to the FIA cost cap, the damage caused by Logan will have restricted their ability to develop the car further.
Now the writing on the wall is in capital letters for Sargeant as team boss James Vowles claims to RACER the current driver lineup is under constant scrutiny. “We’re continually evaluating it,” he claimed.
“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.”
Well the evaluation is simple. Sargeant along with Sergio Perez is the only driver in the current field to have failed to out qualify their team mate for the Grand Prix. Further with the exception of the Kick Sauber duo who are both struggling with a seriously defective car, the American is the only driver to have failed to score a point this season.
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Odds on Sargeant replaced mid-season
James Vowles attempts to sweeten the bitter pill by adding that the team itself is not blameless. “What I’ve said before and I’ve maintained today, is that our car — and this is a responsibility on my shoulders and the team — isn’t quick enough.
“It’s not a driver issue we suffer from today. We’ve simply been out-developed and we have to make sure we accelerate that process.”
While this may be true in the grand scheme of performance evaluation, the fact remains that Alex Albon has scored four points and sits ahead of Esteban Ocon whose Alpine car has more potential than the Williams at present.
The Williams team bosses comments have dramatically increased the odds of a mid-season driver change at the Grove based outfit yet it could yet be Carlos Sainz who hands the Floridian another ten post summer break races to finish his F1 career. We the Spaniard agree to a future with Williams the imminent need for a driver replacement becomes less pressing.
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Vowles again praises Sainz
Again in Silverstone Vowles insisted Sainz was still his number one target but recognises his decision which will be made in the near future prevents Williams from finalising any deal with Sergeants replacement.
“I’ll go back to, he’s a world class driver,” the ex-Mercedes team leader said of thee talented Ferrari driver. “So the decision isn’t imminent. It’s not today that we need to make it.
“But what I’ve said all along is actually the timeline is less important to me. What’s more important is that whatever decision we come to or the driver comes to, it’s about forging a long-term relationship with each other — i.e. both see the journey we’re on and want that to be a part of their lives,” Vowles reiterated his desire for a driver to share his passion of the Williams development project.
The Williams team principal believes matters behind the scenes are coming to a head quickly and that “I’m fairly sure you’ll see all this cleared up before we get to September,” he added. “That’s the normal time.
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“If you look at a normal routine, we’re actually just now going back into what is a normal schedule where August is spent doing contracts. But I’m pretty sure you’ll find it all cemented by then.”
When asked if the team has a plan B should Sainz decline their offer, Vowles was candid: “Fundamentally, yes ,” he said. “Simple answer to it … I think we’re on about Y or Z by now, just to be clear.
“But no, there’s a lot of moving parts to it. More than the world will see, but it will all make sense, I think, once it pans out.”
James Vowles is clearly under pressure from those above him to even suggest his American driver is being evaluated on a continuous basis. Like Christian Horner who experience similar pressure last year over Sergio Perez’s results, the message is not ‘let’s see how Logan has performed come the end of the year.’
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A crisis is looming for the reigning world champions, although the team standings suggest that Red Bull remain relatively safe for now. Max Verstappen has won just three of the last seven Grand Prix and the Milton Keynes outfit are third on the points tally since the Florida race.
McLaren have 171 points, Mercedes 157 and Red Bull Racing (RBR) just 134. This points to a growing problem for Red Bull, who have traditionally been dominant but now find themselves in a precarious position… READ MORE
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While he changed his mind about definitely not making driver changes during the season, he still hasn’t even indirectly indicated he’d do so, which is different from merely not ruling out as a possibility, so people should stop twisting & misinterpreting.
In the end, Sargeant is unlikely to get replaced during the season anyway, even though his days as an F1 driver have been numbered for a little while, with his Silverstone performance level most likely too little too late to save a 2025 drive unless he could pull of similar performance level consistently throughout the remaining season.