Williams boss James Vowles says he has total faith in Logan Sargeant’s abilities but that Alex Albon provides the team with a better chance to score points.
Williams has withdrawn Sargeant from the remainder of the Australian Grand Prix weekend after Albon’s hefty accident in opening practice left the team with only one available chassis.
Williams does not yet have a spare chassis available and the repairs required to the car damaged by Albon means there will again be no back-up chassis at the next round in Japan.
Last season Albon amassed 27 points while Sargeant scored only once.
“The fact I re-signed him shows you I have faith in him,” said Vowles. “This year I think you’ve seen he’s been closer to Alex than before.
“However, I have one car, and just one car. There are five very fast teams taking up those top 10 positions and there’s no points apart from if you’re in the top 10. There’s one point separating the bottom five teams at the moment and so every point will make a difference between now and the end of the year.
“In that regard you therefore put your money on the driver who this year has been slightly ahead of the other one, which is Alex. So I’ve reset everything. Taken a view from Bahrain, taken a view from Saudi and taken a view from here which of the two drivers was more likely to score a point.”
Vowles described the decision to bench Sargeant as “one of the hardest of his career” and backed the American to bounce back from the blow.
“You have an elite athlete who is doing nothing but what I’ve asked him to do this year,” said Vowles.
“He hasn’t made a single mistake, he didn’t put a foot wrong across this year and yet I’ve taken him out of the car. Whether it was you in the car or him in the car, that would damage your confidence.
“One of the methods I’ve been putting in place with him so far is structure around it, including he and I talking about where his strengths are and where his weaknesses are. Help and support in terms of his surroundings in order to move him forward.
“The truth behind it is with a racing driver, when they get in the car… again, for him now will be in Japan, and he ends up within milliseconds of Alex which is what he’s been doing the last few races, you’ll see the confidence flows back anyway.
“The second message is this, he understands it’s a team sport – it’s the weirdest sport in the world where I’ve got two drivers, but it’s a team sport. And he understands that.”
