Vowles admits that he underestimated Sargent for nothing

Logan Sargent made his F1 debut after just one season in F2 during which he scored a number of victories, although it cannot be said that his results have been stable. But circumstances worked out well for the American driver in that Williams initially chose between Oscar Piastri and Nick de Vries, but both signed contracts with other teams.

Sargent was accepted into the Williams youth program at the end of 2021 and received financial support from this team for appearances in Formula 2. It was under Jost Capito, but last December the German specialist left the post of sports director, being replaced by James Vowles.

A curious point is that he was not only chief strategist at Mercedes, but also in charge of the youth program. Now Vowles is ready to admit that they once in vain missed the opportunity to work with Sargent, although the young American was once on the team “on the bride”.

“He came to the Mercedes base when we were evaluating young drivers who could work on a team simulator,” Vowles told The Race. “I was interested to see him because he had the speed, especially when you look at his results in Formula 3, although he drove for a pretty average Charouz team in 2021.

He appeared with us together with Oscar Piastri, whom I also appreciate very much. But then the Mercedes youth program was staffed with good racers, so at that point my relationship with Logan ended.

But then his Formula 2 career was funded by Williams, as the team felt he was a promising driver. Once the restraint of my reviews was due to the fact that it was difficult to get a real idea about Logan. But now that he’s driving our car, I have the opportunity to analyze his telemetry, and I have to admit that he ended up in Williams quite rightly.

The team did the right thing when they decided to invest in him, because now he has become a professional racer. It shows I’ve been wrong about him in the past and Williams has proven him right.”