Sargeant Reveals What 'Killed' The Race For Williams After An Amazing Qualification

Wednesday, 22 November 2023 at 06:00

Williams F1 driver Logan Sargeant reacted to the disappointing race result after a promising qualification on Saturday at the Las Vegas Strip Circuit.

Williams drivers showed incredible speed during the qualifying session on Saturday when they finished in P6 and P7 ahead of drivers like Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton, and Charles Leclerc.

Alex Albon and Logan Sargeant then moved up one position higher after the 10-place grid penalty was applied to Carlos Sainz in second place.

The two drivers also did a great job avoiding the turn-one carnage on the opening lap of the race. However, they seemed to gradually lose their pace over the course of the race.

The strategy that the Williams F1 team went for was one-stop. Both drivers started on Medium compound tires, and then on laps 15 and 16, they switched to the Hard compound tires, which they ran until the end of the race.

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Logan Sargeant told the media after the race he thought the main problem for their strategy was the safety car on lap 26 caused by the Verstappen-Russell collision.

"I don't think we did a lot wrong, to be honest. I think that that second Safety Car, right in the middle of our Hard [tire stint] honestly killed our strategy."

There were some drivers who pulled off a very similar one-stop strategy like Charles Leclerc (P2) and Esteban Ocon (P4). The American driver then mentioned it might not have made a difference even if they decided to change his tires.

"Could we have tried to come in and put a new Medium? Possibly. I don't think it would have made a huge difference."

Williams went into the weekend wanting to score as many points as possible to prevent AlphaTauri from snatching the seventh place in the Championship from them, and in the end, both teams scored zero points. Sargeant concluded:

"We're sitting P12, quicker than a few cars ahead, had Alex just up the road, I think there was potential on the table. Once everyone was able to box for a new set under the safety car and we didn't, it really was just the end."