The ongoing 2023 season marked the debut of newly appointed Williams driver, Logan Sargeant. Fans and teams had a lot of preconceived notions about the American driver and also a great deal of expectations put on him.
Unfortunately, it has been nothing but a struggle for Sargeant and the team, with zero points to his name even after 16 race weekends. His F1 journey so far has been marred by a number of high-priced crashes throughout the season.
His most recent mishap occurred at the Japanese Grand Prix last weekend, where Sargeant not only made a wreck out of his own car during the qualifying session but also came into collision with the Alfa Romeo driven by Valtteri Bottas.
This comes as a stark contrast to his Williams teammate Alex Albon who delivers far better outcomes, which has, in fact, garnered the attention of the other teams on the grid. Recently, Albon has managed to sneak into the top 10 positions until the race at Suzuka.
📊 Estimated Crash Damage in 2023 after the Japanese GP
1) Sargeant $3,906,000
2) Stroll $2,609,000
3) Checo $2,459,000 🐂🔴
4) Gasly $2,201,000
5) Albon $1,849,000
…
17) Bottas $575.000
18) Hamilton $525.000
19) Alonso $350.000
20) Max $220.000 🐂🔴[u/basspro24chevy] #F1 pic.twitter.com/1b2crEnev2
— RBR Daily (@RBR_Daily) September 25, 2023
The post-summer outings have cost the already struggling Williams team about $3,906,000 in damages from the crashes and repairs. Such on-track blunders have posed a huge risk as his career in Formula 1 is in jeopardy. Logan Sargeant is the only driver on the grid whose contract has not been renewed for the 2024 season, leaving a possibility of an empty spot at Williams Racing.
Which F1 driver could replace Logan Sargeant at Williams for 2024?
The chaos within AlphaTauri has been one of the major highlights of the season since the time they had to let go of the Dutch driver Nyck de Vries, who recently joined Harvard University, and gave his seat to the former Red Bull driver Daniel Ricciardo.
Since the incident at the Dutch Grand Prix that left Ricciardo injured, the F2 rookie, Liam Lawson stepped in. After the conclusion of four successful races, the team has announced their 2024 driver lineup which does not include Lawson.
🚨Williams is understood to be evaluating Mick Schumacher in their simulators! liam lawson is reportedly the last candidate to replace Sargent. pic.twitter.com/5uUuwgOOjc
— ザバ🇿🇦 (@XavaBlue) September 26, 2023
The young Kiwi demonstrated an exceptional performance at the Singapore Grand Prix while being the driver who kicked out Max Verstappen from heading towards Q3. Logan Sargeant, on the other hand, hasn’t exactly lived up to the expectations.
People anticipated the best from him, but yet, nothing has materialized and he stands empty-handed with no points for himself or the team. This came as a shock as Lawson managed to bag some points for AlphaTauri.
While everyone believes that Liam Lawson will go back to being the Red Bull’s reserve driver, the probability of Williams pursuing him for the vacant spot is quite high. As most of the drivers have ongoing contracts with their respective teams for the upcoming 2024 season, Lawson has one shot at returning to the F1 grid with Williams next year.