Logan Sargeant revealed that Williams’ troubles in Formula 1’s Spanish Grand Prix have been compounded by his floor “not producing the right amount of downforce”.
Sargeant came into the weekend relishing the chance to be using the same specification FW45 as team-mate Alex Albon for the first time since the start of the term.
However, the Grove-based squad has endured a tumultuous time in Barcelona as both drivers qualified on the back row, with Sargeant over three-tenths behind Albon.
But the American driver has divulged how the floor that was fitted to his car at this race has been “underperforming” and accentuated the huge gap to his team-mate.
“It’s been a painful weekend, I guess we kind of knew there was potential for that coming into it, but I feel we’ve made some good changes from P1 to now,” he said.
“I think inherently the car pace hasn’t been there this weekend but as well to top it off unfortunately the floors that were brought for me are underperforming.
“We’ve been combating that all weekend, trying to make tweaks to make it better.
“It was better from P3 to quali, so we found a bit there, but I think even if it was dead equal I wouldn’t have gotten Alex today but would have been much closer.”
Sargeant disclosed how the latest iteration has eradicated some excess weight from his car, but conceded that the gains were dampened owing to the floor problem.
“The weight has come off, so that’s obviously a positive, but it’s pretty much been counteracted by the fact it’s not producing the right amount of downforce,” he said.
“So you kind of win a little bit but you lose in another sense. So no, I don’t think I would have quite gotten him today but it would have been nice to have a fair go at it.”
Sargeant revealed he was meant to receive the lighter floor at the previous round in Canada but prior hitches that have not been ironed out prevented an earlier arrival
“Yeah I mean, when the floors came we had the outlier that Alex has that is performing the way it should be,” he explained.
“We thought we had fixed the other ones for this weekend, that’s why the delay in Canada was actually because we wanted to get them fixed going forward.
“But unfortunately we still have some understanding to do.”
Sargeant said that he didn’t expect a seismic leap in competitiveness with the update as the sole gain derived from reducing weight rather than adding performance.
“Well technically it is the same spec but the floor’s not working properly,” he reiterated.
“Think [the] first step is more just understanding that, it’s not a position I want to be in, it’s not a position the team wants to be in, it’s just unfortunate.
“So thinking it was going to come and then not coming is disappointing but to be honest it’s just weight, so technically the floor should act the same.
“So I didn’t feel anything drastic, but yeah like is aid it was better now than it’s been all weekend, but yeah, still missing.”
