Calls grow for ‘most logical’ option to take Sargeant’s Williams seat
That is the view of ex-F1 driver turned Sky pundit Anthony Davidson, who reckons that Lawson, who has impressed as a stand-in for the injured Daniel Ricciardo at AlphaTauri, would be an “amazing option” for Williams.
Davidson believes a short-term deal for Lawson would also benefit Red Bull given the 21-year-old New Zealander is set for a year on the sidelines with no seats available at AlphaTauri or Red Bull for 2024.
“It’s not just me saying this, but everybody in the paddock that I’ve spoken to about him… Liam Lawson, what a cracking job he’s done and he continued to do that in Suzuka as well,” Davidson told the Sky Sports F1 podcast.
“I think he might just have one final run out in Qatar next race coming up, if Ricciardo’s hand hasn’t recovered in time. But if that is the end of the road for Lawson for now, I think he’d be an amazing option for Williams and one where both teams can benefit from.”
“In the short-term, Williams can benefit from having, clearly, a known quantity that will jump in and do a good job. He’s done enough races now in enough conditions to give people confidence. Often that’s what it comes down to in a team.
“It’s not just one person making a decision of who to put in a car, it’s lots of people, and they have to be brave enough in many ways to be proved wrong if it does go wrong. It’s like a board decision for who you are going to go for.
“So the better your results have been, like Lawson, in lots of different scenarios. You can see the guy keeps his nose clean, he’s not a crasher, he’s fast when he needs to be. He’s a methodical worker, a good overtaker, a team player.
“He ticks a lot of boxes and he’s young. He’s got time to continue to learn out of the spotlight. Continuing to learn in a team like Williams, alongside a great driver like Alex Albon could be a fantastic relationship and one that works well for Red Bull as well going forward, because they have the luxury of too many drivers around for the seats they have available.
“To me that makes sense. He’s the most logical one that I would want to put in my second seat if I was running a team. And you’d put a nice deal together with Red Bull.
“The only negative for Williams is that you’d lose that commodity. You are training somebody up to then lose then later on the down the line. But in the short-term, you could get a good, healthy amount of points on the table and walk away from a season that’s not damaging the car all the time.”
Davidson continued: "The thing that Logan Sargeant proves is that he was comparable to Liam Lawson in F2, he had the speed and consistency there and he had good race results to almost match those guys.
“Yet for whatever reason in F1 it’s not working out. It can such a pressure-cooker environment in F1 that they struggle to drive freely enough. You drive too tense because you are not confident enough because it’s such a scary environment.
“I feel like Logan isn't driving the way I’ve seen him drive before in other categories. He’s not driving the way he knows he can drive and these mistakes keep coming about because maybe he’s trying to do things without driving in a free way."
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