James Vowles grilled for Logan Sargeant decision in awkward interview

Williams F1 boss James Vowles has come under fire for his decision to stop Logan Sargeant from racing at this weekend’s Australian Grand Prix to favour Alex Albon.

Sargeant will not be in action for Williams in Melbourne after the team decided to give his chassis to teammate Albon.

Albon damaged his in first practice after a heavy shunt at Turn 6, causing a red flag with 20 minutes on the clock.

Unable to repair it, and with no spare chassis, Williams had a tough decision to make.

Given Albon is typically the quicker Williams driver, Vowles decided to give Albon his teammate’s chassis.

It means there will be only 19 cars on the grid for Sunday’s race.

Vowles addressed the situation in a slightly awkward interview with Sky Sports F1’s Ted Kravitz ahead of FP3 on Saturday.

Ted Kravitz: "Why did you make the decision that you made?"

James Vowles: “So first of all let’s rewind. We don’t have a spare chassis here - that’s the failing as the result of things. It simply shouldn’t be in modern day Formula 1 without the ability to field two cars on the grid at the same time.”

TK: Hang on, that’s your responsibility, you’re team boss, that’s on you.

JV: "Correct, Ted. I was going to go into in a second minute but we will go into now if you like? It’s not a problem, you direct it. We have an organisation that is very much going through three things. It’s going through transformation from where we have been. We’re clearly nowhere near where we want to be. I have been brutally honest about that from the outset. The plan in February when I joined is to have three chassis at the first race with these sets of performance targets, this technology inside the chassis, these methods we’re changing and these processes. 

"All of that is a tremendous amount for an organisation to digest in a period of 12 months. The chassis technology is very different to anything that has come out of Williams beforehand. It’s a huge amount more components. Across the winter, everything came later and later to the extent it was becoming more and more difficult to have two cars in Bahrain with enough spares to go running. 

"At some point you have to make decisions - do we sacrifice spares? The spare chassis? What do we push back in the system and the chassis is what got pushed back. Originally planned for round three, still you’re playing with fire, that’s two rounds you can be without a chassis and then due to further problems, and further delays, it got pushed back beyond here. It’s unacceptable in any standard of modern day F1 but it’s also now a visible element of where we are as Williams. We’re nowhere near where we want to be."

TK: "Right. Sorry, but that doesn’t explain why you just decided to completely sacrifice Logan when it wasn’t his fault?"

JV: "It’s a fair reflection. Logan did nothing wrong across the first two races and here this weekend. He’s not put a foot wrong. He hasn’t hurt the car or damage the car in any way shape or form. Points are only allocated for the top 10 cars. That’s it. And right now the difference between P6 to P10 is one point that was scored by Haas last weekend. At the end of the season we will be talking and we will see a point or two will differentiate championship positions in the battle we’re in. 

"As a result of that, with just one car, I’ve got to put my best foot forward. Across this year, if I ignore last year, this year, Alex has had the leading edge over Logan in every single event. With just one car, you put your best statistical chance of scoring a point in as every point will make a difference."

TK: "I don’t have a different view but I will put maybe some of the fans’ view. For the benefit of maybe, maybe one point. If nothing happens to RBs or anything like that, to hurt Logan’s confidence and his credibility, to undermine your decision to keep him for this year anyway, to maybe damage your relationship with your US owners and your US sponsors, and maybe you’ve damaged your relationship with the fans  who many don’t think this is fair. Is it really worth it?

JV: "I wouldn’t have made the decision if it wasn’t. You’ve brought up some fair risks. We’ve hurt an individual whose job it is to perform at the highest level. Anything that stops you from that puts you on the back foot. You were talking about one point, one point being nearly nothing or meaning to things. In that situation, even a probability of scoring a point is what is important to me at teh moment. I have hard decisions to make and it’s for the well being of Williams as a whole. I will do everything it takes to score the point if it’s available to us."