🗣️ 'He is here on merit' Williams F1 boss James Vowles has defended Logan Sargeant against ‘pay driver’ allegations, but admits he initially had reservations after rejecting him for a Mercedes junior role ⬇️
Given F1’s popularity surge in the United States, some have labelled the signing of Sargeant – the first full-time American race driver in the series since’s four-race stint with Manor in 2015 – as also having been led by its commercial appeal after he finished fourth in F2 last season.
But Vowles has hit back at those claims against the driver whose junior career was partially funded by Williams, saying that Sargeant is a genuine salaried driver who is “deserving” of his place in F1. Vowles said: “I now have the ability to look at his data, and he is here on merit. As a result of Williams investing correctly in him, he's now a professional, deserving driver on the grid.”
Ex-Mercedes motorsport strategy chief Vowles did, however, concede he had been “wrong” about Sargeant previously after opting not to sign the driver to the Three-Pointed Star’s junior stable. as a sim evaluation [driver] and I was interested in looking at him because he had performance, especially when you go back to his Formula 3 performance in an average team. He was there with Oscar [Piastri] and I rate Oscar also highly. “At the time in Mercedes, we had a good suite of drivers.
“My reticence came from the fact that prior to that it's difficult to really judge him… so it just shows you that my previous life I was wrong and Williams were right.”
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