Williams defends Sargeant sacrifice in Australia

Williams team principal James Vowles says the razor-thin margins in Formula 1’s midfield left him with no choice but to prioritise the team’s interests by putting Alexander Albon in Logan Sargeant’s car for the rest of the Australian Grand Prix weekend.

Albon crashed with a third of FP1 remaining at Albert Park and missed all of FP2 as Williams lacked the parts required to build a replacement chassis.

Faced with qualifying and the race still to come, the team eventually elected to withdraw Albon’s damaged car from the entry list and have him take over Sargeant’s chassis, which had completed both practice sessions.

“The midfield is incredibly competitive, and a few tenths or more can make the difference between being tenth and sixth at the end of the season,” Vowles said. “Right now, the gaps between us [midfield teams] are fractions of a second. While it’s desperately sad to see a driver not able to participate on Sunday through no fault of their own, I have to put the team first.

“Logan has been fantastic. In this regard, he’s supporting the team. The decision is clearly painful for him, but equally, he’s very strong because he knows the team comes above everything else.”

Williams found itself in this awkward situation due to delays in its manufacturing process for its 2024 car. One consequence of pushing to get two cars ready for the start of the season was that the spare car was not finished on time.

“Given the amount of work we’ve done over the winter, we’ve stretched our organisational capability to the absolute maximum,” Wolff explained. “We’ve pushed everything to the limit, which means some production activities were late, and therefore the spare chassis wasn’t ready.

“No team would come to a race without a spare chassis. That carries risks. At best, it’s uncomfortable; at worst, you don’t have a car to race. And that’s the position we find ourselves in today.

“We must ensure that we never put ourselves in this situation again. We’re here to race, and having only one car here on Saturday and Sunday is not what we should be doing.”