Williams team boss James Vowles has laid it out for Logan Sargeant. The young American is on the right path, but he must still earn the right to remain on the grid with the British outfit in 2024.
Sargeant has endured a challenging start to his career in F1, with mistakes, incidents and messy sessions marking his debut campaign.
The 22-year-old from Fort Lauderdale, Florida is trying his best to clean up his act and there are undeniable signs that progress is taking hold.
At Zandvoort, Sargeant gained access for the very first time to Q3, only to crash on his first flying lap. He also veered off course and into the barrier on race day, although it was later discovered that a hydraulics failure had caused the mishap.
Sargeant is still fighting for his seat at Williams for 2024, but Vowles has told the young gun what he needs to do to retain his drive with the team.
"The comments I’ve given him is this: it’s a meritocracy, you’re not here just because we want you to be here, you have to earn your place, this is the pinnacle of motorsport," said Vowles, speaking to Sky F1.
"And what I’m asking of you is follow this general guidance, follow this development path, keeping moving forward relative to Alex, and there is a place for you here with your name on it.
"Before then there are points with your name on it. Some were available at Zandvoort… earn those. It’s how you earn your pathway into Formula 1.
"In terms of where we are now, you have to be working in the way of the drivers and understanding where they are. Alex is here for the long term, I can tell you that already.
"In terms of where Logan is, he is on the right path to developing, he has to just keep stepping it up race on race."
The notion of incremental progress may also be applied to Williams. The Grove-based outfit is gaining momentum, having reaped the benefits since Montreal last June of its development programme.
Since then, Alex Albon has scored solid points in four of the last six races which has anchored the team to P7 in F1's Constructors' Championship, much to Vowles satisfaction.
"Beginning of the season barring testing we weren’t on the pace, we were scuttering round at the back," explained Vowles. "The point we scored at Bahrain was done by blocking a number of teams for a period of time.
"The team did a great job, Silverstone, Montreal to really keep the strategy up. There were a number of times there was a queue of cars behind us.
"Netherlands, it was the first time you’ve seen us properly there on merit. Not holding cars up but actually overtaking cars on track and fighting for positions.
"And we didn’t do a great job with it, we left points on the table. That’s a good feeling to have. Disappointed of course by it but I want us to be disappointed now when we are in the points and want more and more.
"That’s Formula 1 all over. We are on the right pathway, but we are also very conscious that what happened in Zandvoort isn’t going to be something repeated necessarily at all high downforce tracks remaining.
“Circumstances fell our way, we got our car to fourth position in qualifying, which is really not necessarily where it was on merit. But a great job by Alex, and Logan just putting himself… I think P10 was fine, but he had more on the table as well."
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