Williams provide timeline for Sargeant F1 seat decision

Williams Team Principal James Vowles has detailed when he will make a decision regarding his squad's driver line-up for next year.

The Grove-based squad has already signed Alexander Albon up for the campaign, but question marks remain over the second seat currently filled by Logan Sargeant.

The American has endured a challenging rookie campaign with a number of recent events being overshadowed by crashes.

His run of difficulties has led to speculation that he could be dropped for next season.

However, Vowles has asserted that no decision will be taken before the end of the current campaign.

“I suspect it'll be to the end of the season,” he told media including RacingNews365.com.

“I think we've already committed to the direction of travel we're in, he has targets to that and it'd be wrong to go against that decision point. So end of the year.”

Sargeant frustrated

Vowles offered further insight into Sargeant's mindset, believing that his sense of frustration was present before his run of on-track crases.

“I think from him the frustration has been there for many months actually,” he said.

“He went into Bahrain – probably the worst thing that can happen – he went into Bahrain overlapped with Lando in terms of Q1, and he thought perhaps the challenge in front of him may not be as significant as it really is.

“What you then saw after that time, Alex has grown, I think, across this season, and the gap started to grow, as you found a driver that’s now frustrated, his normal tools aren’t producing the quality of lap-time that was there previously.

“He knows how to win. He’s won in Formula 3, won in Formula 2 but applying that now in Formula 1 and then not achieving results creates more and more frustration.

“Then that ends up with over-driving, fundamentally. That’s the dialling back bit.”