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

James Vowles has opened up on the decision to replace Logan Sargeant mid-season, with the Williams team boss believing it would have been “almost unfair” to keep him in a race seat.

Sargeant was just over halfway through his sophomore campaign in F1 when Vowles opted to bench him following a particularly challenging run of form, which culminated in a costly accident during practice for the Dutch Grand Prix.

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At the following round in Italy, where Williams promoted academy driver and F2 racer Franco Colapinto into a race seat, Vowles told the media why he felt the change was necessary and why it came in the middle of the year.

“If you speak to every TP [Team Principal] up and down the pit lane, no one wants to change a driver mid-season – it’s horrible,” said Vowles. “It is incredibly tough on the driver, it’s tough on the team and it’s disruptive, to say the least.

“It’s a good question. Why change it now? The cleanest point to have done it would have been at the beginning of the year. Logan, as I said from the outset, at the end of last year he was starting to get within a tenth of Alex, starting to be close, and it was good to see his progression.

“If that progression continued, we would have a driver, I think, in a very strong place this year. It didn’t feel like the right point to cut ties, sever ties, as a result of it. The reason now is straightforward. We’ve had enough experience under our belt to know that he’s reached the limit of what he’s able to achieve.

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“It’s almost unfair on him, furthermore, continuing. Look at his face when he gets out of the car, he’s given you everything he possibly can, and it’s not enough.

“He absolutely never, from a human perspective, did anything but give me 100% of what he was able to do, but the realisation of where he is on his limits now is very clear – it’s clear to everyone.”

With Sargeant already aware that he would not be racing for Williams in 2025, given that Carlos Sainz was recently signed to partner Albon, Vowles also feared relations between the American racer and the team could have deteriorated.

“The relationship can only become more and more difficult across the last nine races, towards the end of the year, because he knows what his future holds, which is not to be in F1 anymore,” Vowles went on to comment.

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“Actually, a clean break at that stage feels like the correct decision for all parties. It feels like it’s fair to Logan. He won’t feel that way today, but I hope he reflects on it in the future that it is fair towards him in that regard.”

When announcing the change, the Grove outfit stated that Sargeant “will remain in the Williams family and we will support him to continue his racing career”, but it remains to be seen where the 23-year-old will go next.