Ex-Formula 1 team owner Eddie Jordan believes Logan Sargeant would be fortunate to retain his place at Williams, insisting it can’t rely on only one driver performing.
Williams managed to achieve its best placing in the Constructors’ Championship since 2017 with seventh place , narrowly holding off a late-season charge from AlphaTauri.
But the intra-team battle at the Grove-based squad was heavily one-sided as Alex Albon scored all but one of the side’s 28 points and out-qualified Sargeant in every single round.
Although Sargeant’s future remains in the balance, Williams team boss James Vowles revealed that he intends to mull over the season’s data before making a decision.
While he remains the favourite for the sole remaining seat on the 2024 grid, 13-time F1 race winner David Coulthard considered Sargeant to be the biggest underperformer.
When discussing the topic on the Formula For Success podcast, Coulthard said: “The obvious one in comparison in lap time, has to be Logan Sargeant. Half a second away from Albon.
“And I feel for Logan, because I genuinely would like all these guys to have success because it’s a privilege to be a professional sportsperson, but it just doesn’t seem to have gelled.
“For some drivers who have success in the lower formulas, Formula 1 is just a different animal and the consistency of performance, even though he had a great qualifying in Vegas and I think it was Zandvoort he did a really good job, but there’s just been too many sort of missed opportunities.
“And I’d be curious to know EJ, whether if he were in your team, and it was no financial benefit in keeping him or nationality benefit, would he make your two? And with the hope that suddenly he’s going to discover some pace and the penny is going to drop.”
Despite its rivals introducing upgrades right up until the final round, Williams ceased development on its FW45 challenger early in a bid to get a head start on next year’s car.
However, Jordan asserts that Williams’ ceiling will be capped if it continues to have a huge disparity between its drivers, adding that he wouldn’t have ever signed Sargeant.
“First of all, talent is something you have and you can’t buy it,” Jordan added. “Would he drive the car if he had no money? Absolutely not. Would he drive the car if he had a whole heap of money? I’m not even sure he would.
“Because if I look back, the Jarno Trullis, the Ralf Schumachers, the Eddie Irvines and the [Rubens] Barrichellos, whilst people might think that we went for money primarily, there was a fine line.
“Yes, we needed somebody to help pay the bills, but it’s not absolutely imperative, Eddie Irvine is case in point. But then there were other things that he brought in terms of other sponsors that helped to come as a result.
“Sargeant would not be in my team. We didn’t finish outside the top five that often and we got to number three, so to do that, you need really high quality drivers who know and you can’t rely on just one.
“I mean, of course, there were times that we did rely on one. But generally speaking, I think a very strong team-mate is exactly what you want.
“So the answer, Sargeant, I’m afraid wouldn’t be in my team.”
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