James Vowles has warned the struggling Logan Sargeant that his Formula 1 seat at Williams is far from being secure unless he steps up his game and earn it.
Sargeant is the only American driver on the current F1 grid, and was promoted into the Williams drive after finishing fourth in the 2022 Formula 2 Championship.
Sargeant has failed to impress so far on his maiden F1 campaign, way off the pace of teammate Alex Albon, while also being error and crash prone, his latest being crashing in qualifying in Zandvoort after reaching Q3, undoing all his good work that day.
And while many might think that the American rookie’s seat at Williams given that Dorilton Capital (a U.S. investment firm), Team Principal James Vowles insists that is not the case.
Speaking about the future of Sargeant with the team, Vowles told Sky Sports F1: “The comments I’ve given him is this, it’s a meritocracy, you’re not here just because we want you to be here, you have to earn your place, this is the pinnacle of motorsport.
“And what I’m asking of you is follow this general guidance, follow this development path, keeping moving forward relative to Alex, and there is a place for you here with your name on it.
“Before then there are points with your name on it. Some were available at Zandvoort… earn those. It’s how you earn your pathway into Formula 1,” the Briton added.
And while Sargeant’s exploits at Williams are nothing to write home about, Albon in the sister car has been giving the Grove outfit some reason to smile, scoring points on five occasions, netting 21 Championship points for the teams keeping them seventh in the Constructors’ Standings.
Needless to say, Vowles is satisfied by the job Albon has been doing so far, revealing the latter will be around for a while at Williams.
He commented: “In terms of where we are now, you have to be working in the way of the drivers and understanding where they are.
“Alex is here for the long term, I can tell you that already. In terms of where Logan is, he is on the right path to developing, he has to just keep stepping it up race on race,” Vowles concluded.