Sargeant offers reason for Williams 'steering wheel glitch'

Electronics problems could be the possible cause of the steering wheel glitch that all but ended his Bahrain Grand Prix, reckons Logan Sargeant.

The Williams driver qualified 18th but had climbed to 13th by Lap 10 and was chasing the Haas of Kevin Magnussen when he slid off track at Turn 4.

On-board footage would later emerge showing that uncommanded, the car had moved the brake balance forward to 94% - a figure a driver would never use to take a corner.

The American pitted for a steering wheel change and would finish 20th and last, two laps down after the long stoppage.

For 2024, Williams has adopted a new steering wheel design, becoming the final team to adopt the LED screen on the wheel itself and not attached to the chassis bulkhead, with Sargeant explaining that the team was plagued by issues with the electronics.

"We've had some electronics issues [through the weekend] in qualifying and [through the race], and just need to understand the core issue," Sargeant told media including RacingNews365.

"We thought we fixed it, but obviously it came back. It didn't happen again after we changed the steering wheel, so maybe it is something there.

"We just need to understand the core cause and try not to let it happen again moving forward.

"It was just doing things on its own, without my asking, so I don't completely understand it from my side, but I figured [the race] was over. I don't want to say anything until I know exactly what happened."

As for his race, Sargeant described it as a messy affair with the balance of the car just not in a good window.

"The balance was not in as good of a place as we had it for the long runs in testing and FP2, so I definitely struggled a little bit to have the car in the right window," he said.

"But it is nothing we can't fix, it is small things, like just not quite having the front-wing where we need it for different compounds, so just a little bit to go through there.

"It was tricky as well as I couldn't really be in a rhythm, I had a lot of blue flags and letting people through and it just unsettles everything."