Sargeant admits he ‘put the car in a place I shouldn’t have’ as Lap 1 damage wrecks his home race

Logan Sargeant endured a trying first race on home soil, the Florida native propping up the field in Sunday’s Miami Grand Prix as he came home last – and admitting afterwards that he gave himself a mountain to climb after contact with another car meant he needed to pit for a new front wing on the very first lap.

Starting from P20 on the medium compound, Sargeant had found himself close to Lance Stroll through the first few corners, with the Canadian making a slow getaway on the hard tyre. But the Williams man then tried a very opportunistic move which resulted in front wing damage – something he was swift to accept the blame for.

“I put the car in a place I shouldn’t have on Lap 1," he said. "It was a decent opening lap until that point as well. I should’ve just settled and went from there. [I] took the wing off and pretty much ruined my race from there.”

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That damage required a pit stop, and as well as the new front wing Sargent was fitted with a set of the hard compound tyres. He managed to make the one-stop strategy work in so far as he got that set of tyres all the way to the end, but his race became more about tyre management than pace. And with all 20 cars finishing, there was little in the way of opportunity to move up the order.

“Once we went back out for the long stint on the hard tyre, I felt like I managed it quite well. The tyres were struggling by the end but that was to be expected. On a normal strategy our pace would’ve been pretty solid all things considered. Despite today, I still loved the weekend,” he added.

Alex Albon also struggled for pace in the FW45, coming home outside the points in 14th. The team haven’t scored now since the opening race of the season – something the Thai driver is very aware of.

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“It was quite a tricky race; we just didn’t have the pace today," he said. "I think we went into it thinking we were the ninth quickest car and maybe today we were the tenth [quickest].

"The tracks coming up don’t tend to suit our car and there’s a few upgrades coming from other teams, so we just need to get on top of it so they don’t pull away from us. There’s some positives to take from the weekend but races like today expose us a little bit and show where we really are."