Brutal verdict delivered amid Williams’ F1 2024 Sargeant dilemma

Sargeant endured a difficult rookie season as he struggled to match the performances of Williams teammate Alex Albon, while several high-profile mistakes led to big and costly crashes for the team. 

Despite this, the 22-year-old American showed signs of improvement in the latter stages of the campaign and scored a breakthrough point at his home race in Austin.

Sargeant looks favourite to retain the final seat on the F1 2024 grid though he is not the only contender, with Williams expected to make a decision within the next few weeks after carrying out a final data check on his progress. 

Sargeant’s future was the subject of a discussion between Jordan and ex-F1 driver David Coulthard, who suggested he was the biggest underperformer of the 2023 season. 

“The obvious one in comparison in laptime, has to be Logan Sargeant. Half a second away from Albon,” Coulthard said on the Formula For Success podcast. 

“And I feel for Logan, because I genuinely would like all these guys to have success because it’s a privilege to be a professional sportsperson, but it just doesn’t seem to have gelled.

“For some drivers who have success in the lower formulas, Formula 1 is just a different animal and the consistency of performance, even though he had a great qualifying in Vegas and I think it was Zandvoort he did a really good job, but there’s just been too many sort of missed opportunities.

“And I’d be curious to know EJ, whether if he were in your team, and it was no financial benefit in keeping him or nationality benefit, would he make your two? And with the hope that suddenly he’s going to discover some pace and the penny is going to drop.”

Responding to Coulthard’s question, Jordan said: “First of all, talent is something you have and you can’t buy it. 

“Would he drive the car if he had no money? Absolutely not. Would he drive the car if he had a whole heap of money? I’m not even sure he would.

“Because if I look back, the Jarno Trullis, the Ralf Schumachers, the Eddie Irvines and the [Rubens] Barrichellos, whilst people might think that we went for money primarily, there was a fine line.

“Yes, we needed somebody to help pay the bills, but it’s not absolutely imperative, Eddie Irvine is case in point. But then there were other things that he brought in terms of other sponsors that helped to come as a result.

“Sargeant would not be in my team. We didn’t finish outside the top five that often and we got to number three, so to do that, you need really high quality drivers who know and you can’t rely on just one.

“I mean, of course, there were times that we did rely on one. But generally speaking, I think a very strong team-mate is exactly what you want.

“So the answer, Sargeant, I’m afraid wouldn’t be in my team.”