‘He can be a champion in many other series’ – Vowles hints at what’s next for Sargeant after losing Williams seat

Logan Sargeant “absolutely” has the capability to win races and titles in “many other series”, according to Williams team boss James Vowles, who has added fresh context to the American’s mid-season F1 exit.

Sargeant had been contesting his second campaign with Williams when – shortly after a heavy accident in the team’s upgraded car at the Dutch Grand Prix – Vowles opted to replace him with junior driver Franco Colapinto.

READ MORE: Vowles feels it would have been ‘unfair’ on Sargeant to keep him in a Williams race seat

In a recent appearance on the Beyond The Grid podcast, Vowles reflected on the driver change and why he did not make it sooner, with F2 race winner Colapinto having impressed during his FP1 debut at Silverstone earlier in the summer.

“The main priority I had for the team was not who was driving, it was making sure we deliver the car at the correct performance level, worthy of Alex and worthy of anyone else we put in the seat, where it can deliver points, and we hadn’t until that point,” he explained.

“The car we had, we scored a few [points] every now and again, but that wasn’t a car worthy of moving forwards. At the point – which is Zandvoort – we’d delivered on that, I was clear with Logan and all the way through that you have to pick every point that’s available to us, and the car has to be the car we have at the end of the race [because] we don’t have sufficient spares.

“This is what it comes down to. Until that point, there were moments where he had performance and moments where he didn’t. What I wanted was a proper, ‘Here’s where we are, we’re now in a position where we can deliver points’, let’s do that as a team.”

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Vowles was then asked by host Tom Clarkson if Sargeant’s confidence ever fully recovered from the Australian Grand Prix weekend, where team mate Alex Albon wrote off a chassis in a practice crash and took over his car for qualifying and the race.

“If you ask him, he’ll tell you yes as well,” added Vowles, with Sargeant watching the action in Melbourne from the sidelines. “At the very next race he was back into a strong place.

“I think where Logan was, he gave me everything that he had, but it wasn’t at the right level or the right value for what we needed – as simple as that. It was never from him a lack of confidence, or a lack of drive, or a lack of motivation… He would spend all the time that he could making himself quicker, but reached the end of the road of what he was able to achieve.”

Pushed on whether he thinks Sargeant is capable of winning races in another category such as the IndyCar series or the World Endurance Championship, Vowles replied: “Without doubt on all of those. He’s amongst the top 20 drivers in motorsport, which will be controversial saying that, and there’ll be a bunch of people very frustrated by that, but that’s the level he’s at.

READ MORE: ‘He deserves a place in F1’ – Vowles on his efforts to seal Sauber seat for Colapinto

“He was a matter of a tenth or two off. In previous years, a tenth or two would have still kept you in roughly the right position, [but] it doesn’t anymore – that puts you back five places. He absolutely has the capability to be champion in many other series, no doubt about it.”

Sargeant has yet to comment on his future plans since being replaced by Colapinto, though Williams stressed when the change was made that he “will remain in the family and we will support him to continue his racing career”.