Sargeant’s future at Williams has been unsure within the wake of a run of accidents for the reason that summer time break.
He crashed closely in qualifying and the race on the Dutch Grand Prix, hit the obstacles on the Singapore GP, after which went off in an enormous accident throughout Q1 for the Japanese GP final weekend.
These run of incidents come at a time when Williams needs to see the American present regular enchancment over the rest of the marketing campaign to indicate that he can step it up alongside Alex Albon subsequent season.
Whereas Sargeant’s newest crash prompted early hypothesis that Felipe Drugovich, Liam Lawson or Mick Schumacher could possibly be within the body to switch Sargeant, Vowles has poured chilly water on any discuss that he’s positively trying elsewhere for his crew’s second seat.
As a substitute, talking on his post-race ‘Vowles Verdict’ video on the Williams web site, he declared that the crew needed Sargeant to succeed – and that it needed to work with him to make it occur.
“Logan has very clear targets that he has to hit earlier than the top of the season and we’re working with him constantly,” mentioned Vowles.
“That is the vital level: we’re working with him. We wish him to succeed, and we wish him within the automotive subsequent yr. That is very a lot on us as effectively.
“We now have taken somebody straight from Method 2 with none important testing, put a day and a half in Bahrain on this automotive, after which wished them effectively on a season that has been awfully difficult for rookie drivers, full cease.”
Marshals take away the broken automotive of Logan Sargeant, Williams FW45, from the circuit after a crash in Q1
Picture by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Whereas Sargeant’s Suzuka qualifying crash grabbed the eye final week, Vowles mentioned that digging deeper into the info on the Japanese Grand Prix had truly proven the very progress that Williams needed to see.
“There have been some very Positive indicators to take out of it,” he mentioned. “Firstly, Logan will not be on the identical aerodynamic specification as Alex was.
“We now have updates which are on Alex’s automotive that aren’t on Logan’s as a result of quantity of attrition we have had this yr. So typically whenever you see a efficiency offset, it is not fairly what it might appear on the timing pages.
“Moreover, to that, if we have a look at the case of Suzuka, he did a build-up throughout the weekend. As he went into FP3. he did a time that matched Alex and, as we go into qualifying till the accident, he was overlaying line on-line inside a tenth of Alex’s efficiency as effectively, at one of many trickiest circuits of the season.
“So, the progress is there in sure kinds, however very clearly being marred by various different points and accidents which have appeared as effectively.”
Vowles made clear that having introduced Sargeant on, Williams was prepared to take a position extra in him, and was removed from giving up.
“We’ll proceed to work with Logan and spend money on Logan, as we wish him to succeed,” he mentioned. “He is on a journey with us as Williams.
“We now have a younger driver programme that we are going to proceed to spend money on. Solely on the level the place all of us come to the conclusion that we have reached the top of that street will we make any choices. However we’re nowhere close to that but.”