Logan Sargeant will not participate in Friday’s FP2 session at Suzuka after he sustained damage to his Williams F1 car, but the American has escaped without damage to his FW46 chassis.
The American inherited the repaired FW46 chassis sent back to Grove from Melbourne, Australia after team-mate Alex Albon had a heavy crash during opening practice for the Australian Grand Prix.
On Friday, Sargeant went off during the first Formula 1 session of the day in Japan after running wide through the fast right-hand corner Dunlop and hit the barriers, damaging the left rear and front end of his car.
This gave Williams a race against time to prepare his car for FP2, with Team Principal James Vowles admitting “It’s going to be difficult.
“We’ll obviously do our utmost to try and get the car back out there again, but the damage is extensive, so it will take a while.”
Ultimately, the damage sustained to Sargeant’s car was too extensive to prepare in time, but thankfully the chassis remained unscathed.
“It’s pretty significant [damage],” Vowles said after FP1.
“The chassis is OK, fortunately, but I would says pretty much everything else isn’t. So suspension all-round, gearbox cracked, big damage.”
Explaining how Sargeant’s off came about, Vowles said “At the top of the brow of the hill there, he struggled to see where his positioning was on track. So it fundamentally looks like he didn’t quite realize where he was with where the grass was on the outside and put a wheel on the grass.”
Still, after missing out on participating in Saturday and Sunday action at Albert Park after Williams placed Albon in his car to contest the Australian GP.
Such a move will likely affect a driver’s confidence and an off today couldn’t be more ill-timed, but Vowles insists that Sargeant was in good spirits heading into the weekend.
“I’ve been chatting to him all week, all these last few weeks in fact, because this is the point you’ve got to keep a driver very close to you,” Vowles said.
“You’ve given them a very difficult situation to deal with, through no fault of their own, but he was honestly in a very good state of mind this week and last night again when I called him around 9-10pm, really, really strong state of mind.
“He just wanted to get back into the car and get going, but not with the intention of proving to the world that he deserves his seat, just his normal approach to things.
“What you saw here wasn’t a driver making a mistake because I think they were pushing to the limit, it’s a very different type of mistake.
“A very frustrating one by all accounts because it wasn’t on the limit of what the car could do, there was far more turning potential in there, he just didn’t know where the car was on track relative to where he expected it to be anyway.
“So I don’t think you’re seeing there the reaction of someone who wasn’t driving in Melbourne, I think you’re seeing more just a situation that could have appeared anytime.”
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