Williams Team Principal James Vowles has warned that Logan Sargeant's accident in Japanese Grand Prix qualifying will affect the team's 2024 preparations. Sargeant crashed out of qualifying for the Japanese Grand Prix halfway through Q1, when he lost control coming out of the final corner and destroyed the left side of his car. It was the second crash in four races for the American, after his shunt during qualifying for the Dutch GP at Zandvoort. Vowles confirmed that Sargeant was already on an older-spec version of their car compared to the one used by Alex Albon, following his earlier crash at the start of the second half of the season. “For a number of races Logan has been on an old aerodynamic package in a number of ways," he told Sky Sports . "[It's] actually a hybrid, just simply because parts are becoming more and more difficult to come by."
Vowles: We've had more attrition than was expected
Vowles confirmed that the cost cap means Williams are forced to weigh up producing extra spare parts for Sargeant's car and focus development on other areas. “As we near to the end of the year under the cost cap, what you don't want to be doing is overproducing parts," explained Vowles. "We've had more attrition than was expected, it's fair to say. "We have enough to deal with this accident today. But it will mean we'll have to divert attention away from other items while producing more spare parts before we get to the end of the year."
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