Williams: Sargeant must 'get things controlled', aim for clean weekend

Williams team boss James Vowles says Logan Sargeant needs to get things under control and deliver a clean race weekend after a chaotic start to his rookie season in F1.

Sargeant earned his promotion to F1 with Williams on merit on the back of his performances during his single season in the FIA Formula 2 Championship.

But it's been an eventful first five races in F1 for the 22-year-old young American from Boca Raton.

Sargeant suffered a crash in qualifying in Jeddah and then took himself and Nyck de Vries out on the final restart in Melbourne.

He was sidelined from the Sprint event in Baku after enduring another heavy crash in SQ1 while his home race in Miami last time out was undermined at the outset by an opening lap contact with Lance Stroll that left him at the tail end of the field for the remainder of the afternoon.

Vowles has no doubts about Sargeant's ability to perform but insists he needs to strive for consistency and build up his race weekend on his own rather than chase the performance of his Williams teammate Alex Albon.

"Logan's here because he's quick. And he is quick, he can deliver," Vowles told Motorsport.com. "But he has to start by just getting things controlled, delivering cleanly.

"In both qualifying sessions in Baku he made it to Q2. That's the consistency. And that's what we're looking for.

• Read also: Sargeant apologises for 'painful' first lap error in Miami

"What I've already explained to him is 'you’re quick enough'. And then, 'use Q2 to build your experience by almost double from what you're doing at the moment'.

"And that's what you'll start seeing him deliver on. You'll see that he'll slowly edge up.

"I'm not expecting him to be on Alex’s pace. Also he's had a string of races he's never even been to before.

"But even [in Miami], disappointed as he was, there was just three tenths between him and Alex [in Q1]. It just so happened that was seven cars. But three-tenths, that's how close it's getting now."

While Sargeant was left fuming after his first lap contact with Stroll in Miami, Vowles labeled the run-in a mere racing incident, one that allowed the young gun to treat his race as a 50-lap full scale test session.

"It was just racing incident," said Vowles. "And all that happened was the Aston Martin came alongside, there was not enough room. But it wasn't that either one did anything wrong.

"He took it badly would be the right word, but I haven't at all. As I explained to him, tell me another time that you'll get 50 laps where you can play with the car and learn okay and free air, by yourself.

"He's a rookie, he's got a handful of races under his belt. And that opportunity is invaluable. And he used it afterwards. If you look at his pace, you'll see he's there or thereabouts.

"His frustration is that he wanted a clean execution, and he didn't have it. My alternative is the remainder of the race was positive."

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