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Williams team principal James Vowles candidly explained the decision to replace Logan Sargeant for the remainder of the season. Mick Schumacher and Liam Lawson were the top candidates for the seat alongside Alex Albon, but ultimately, Franco Colapinto from Williams' junior academy was chosen. While Lawson was a strong contender, Red Bull's condition to potentially recall him at any time made Vowles hesitant to make a risky change. Therefore, the decision was made to go with Schumacher and Colapinto.
In a media interview, Vowles highlighted the difficulty of making unpopular decisions mid-season, especially since few teams opt for such changes. However, the team leaders weren't happy with Sargeant's performance and felt they had limited options available. Vowles admitted that making this decision was challenging, considering various factors, including driver frustration and anger. It seems they had high expectations for the American driver to make progress this year, given his strong performances at the end of the previous season. Unfortunately, these expectations were not met after the latest race and a disappointing result.
"If you speak to every team principal up and down the pitlane, no one wants to change a driver mid-season. It's horrible. It is
incredibly tough on the driver, it is tough on the team, it is disruptive," Vowles said,as quoted by Motorsport.
"So why change it now? The cleanest point to have done it would have been at the beginning of the year. But Logan at the end of last year was starting to get within a tenth of Alex and starting to be close. "
The Team Principal of Williams Racing believes it's great to see a driver making progress. It's something every team desires, but it's challenging to guarantee whether that progress will lead to a meaningful career breakthrough or just a series of fortunate performances that don’t indicate overall consistency. James Vowles feels that the American driver has reached his limit, and that Williams has made the best decision for the team.
"It was good to see his progression, and if that progression continued we would have the driver I think in a very strong place this year. It didn't feel like the right point to cut ties and sever ties as a result of it.
So the reason now is straightforward, we've had enough experience to know that he's reached the limit of what he's able to achieve. In fact, it's almost unfair on him furthermore continuing that."- he said.
Vowles explained that you can see from the driver's expression after exiting the car that he has put in everything he possibly could, but it hasn't been enough. From a human perspective, the driver has always given 100% of his abilities. However, it’s now very evident, Vowles stressed, that the driver has reached his limits.
Williams team principal clarified that he wanted to give Sargeant enough time to show his performance on tracks where the team believed they could compete effectively. Earlier in the year, the team had a responsibility to build a fast enough car, which they failed to do.
However, from Zandvoort onwards, they believed they had developed a car capable of scoring points, which changed the evaluation criteria. After the recent race, Vowles analyzed Sargeant's performance data in detail and found multiple issues: poor time management, lack of pace, and a finishing position that was too far behind.
James Vowles on Mick Schumacher
As we mentioned earlier, Mick Schumacher was one of the candidates for the seat at Williams, but the team's decision-makers opted for a method they believed would be more advantageous. Williams is a team with specific visions and plans, and they chose to follow their established approach in this case as well.
Vowles explained that Mick Schumacher has significantly improved compared to his time at Haas, with no doubt about that.
The decision was between choosing Schumacher, who Vowles believed would do a good job, or investing in a driver from their own academy who has completed hundreds of laps in their simulator, driven the car, and shown huge progress based on performance data. It seems that this team wants to prioritize young players from the academy, who they feel have the potential to do great things.
Vowles stressed that both drivers are good but not special. He emphasized the need to be clear about this, stating that Schumacher, while good, would not stand out as special.
He added that Williams has always invested in new generations of drivers and that his focus has been on investing in the future of the team. For Williams, investing in the future means focusing on talented individuals who can help the team progress, rather than looking to the past.
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