Vowles admits Williams ‘need more’ from Sargeant to ‘save his seat’ for 2025

While James Vowles has noted steady improvement from Logan Sargeant during his sophomore F1 season, the Williams team boss says more is needed if the American wants to have any chance of remaining at the team.

F3 and F2 race winner Sargeant has struggled to make an impression alongside more experienced team mate Alex Albon during his time at the Grove operation so far, leading to plenty of speculation over his F1 future as the 2025 driver market intensifies.

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Speaking to the media ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix, Vowles assessed Sargeant’s efforts over the first third of the current campaign and discussed the 23-year-old’s chances of keeping his seat alongside Albon next year.

Asked if he has seen Sargeant take a step forward in recent races, Vowles said: “I think there’s no doubt, second year of running, and you are now seeing the confidence start to build as a result of it, and there is performance there.

“We also haven’t had the cars in the same spec for a period of time. Some of that’s still due to the earlier damage that we’re building up to, some of that is because we pulled forward upgrades, and there was simply not enough to put across two cars.

“He is continuously evolving as an individual, as I hope he would be in that circumstance. Is he where I need him to be target-wise? And that’s the big question of things. We need more from him, really, to be able to save his seat in that sort of circumstance.”

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Those comments come amid Vowles and Williams’ publicly declared interest in signing outgoing Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz to partner Albon from next season, albeit facing competition from rival teams to secure his services.

Asked about Sainz in Montreal, Vowles said: “He’s a race-winning driver that last year against all odds beat Max [Verstappen] in Singapore with a brilliant drive, and that’s not the first time. He’s intelligent how he approaches things, logical, incredibly quick.

“What he did this year in Shanghai… It’s going to sound like a negative, it’s not… In qualifying he crashed and we’ve all been there to a certain extent, [but] it’s an impressive athlete that can reset themselves, go back out and then beat your team mate in that condition.

“I think that shows you just how strong he is as a driver, and I think any team on the grid would be fortunate to have someone like Carlos alongside them.”

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Pushed to confirm if the three-time Grand Prix winner sits at the top of Williams’ driver wish list, Vowles added: “That bit I can say. The number one target is Carlos.”

Albon has scored all bar one of Williams’ 30 points since teaming up with Sargeant, with the Thai-British racer’s brace from Monaco putting the team ninth in the 2024 constructors’ standings after nine rounds.