Logan Sargeant made plenty of F1 news headlines in Zandvoort, taking a first Q3 appearance on Saturday before suffering a retirement on Sunday. Post-race, Williams has confirmed that a hydraulic failure was responsible for his crash.
The American driver contended with nightmare conditions after a season-best grid start, a task which wasn’t helped by the issues he faced in the FW45.
Sargeant has faced scrutiny over his F1 future, with reports swirling around about potential alternatives in the market for Williams.
Although adapting to the intense nature of Formula 1 takes some time, this does not protect drivers – even rookies – from the pressures of the driver market.
Zandvoort seemed an opportunity for the 21-year-old to put in a performance worthy of silencing these rumours. Given the circumstances last weekend, it can be said he made some progress in this endeavour.
Speaking post-race, Sargeant explained his relatively short drive on Sunday afternoon:
“It was a tricky start to the race with the rain coming down.
“It looks like the inters were maybe the better option, but we tried to survive out there on the slicks. After yesterday, I was just trying to be extremely cautious and build up nicely.
Keep your head up, @LoganSargeant 💙
Logan’s FW45 suffered a loss of hydraulics on landing from taking a kerb. Now we’ve got the car back, we’ll assess it and review what caused this issue before getting it ready for Monza 💪 pic.twitter.com/wbGEB8IUdZ
— Williams Racing (@WilliamsRacing) August 27, 2023
“But I lost a bit too much tyre temperature in those wet conditions.
“Unfortunately, it didn’t end the way we wanted it to. I touched the kerb, and it seems that from the impact of that, we had an issue with hydraulics and power steering.
“Once I lost that assistance, there was really nothing I could do. I still need to watch it back, but we need to look into what went wrong.
“I want to say a huge thank you to the team for getting the car turned around for today.”
Whilst Sargeant will hope to put last weekend behind him, the next sequence of races will still present opportunities.
Williams is competitive across various circuits, so he will still have the tools to secure results in 2023.
Author: Jaden Diaz-Ndisang
