Another circumspect call from Williams as Logan Sargeant returns to action in Japan

Although Logan Sargeant will be back on the grid in Japan, at least as things stand today, Williams have made the call to give him Alex Albon’s repaired chassis.

And it is heavier, although only marginally, than the one he handed over to his team-mate in Australia when Albon wrecked his in practice.

Logan Sargeant will use Alex Albon’s repaired chassis

Last time out in Australia, Sargeant was forced to sit out the Grand Prix through no fault of his own as Williams did not have a spare chassis to use when Albon crashed in FP1.

But while it was a bitter pill to swallow at the time, Sargeant says everyone at Williams is doing their.

“I think you always have to look at what’s best for the team. Of course, as the driver you want to drive, but at the same time I know everyone’s working as hard as they can,” he said.

“I don’t blame anyone, I know everyone’s trying their best and I make mistakes, the team makes mistakes, but we move on.”

He, however, admitted his first thought when he saw Albon crash was Williams’ spare parts shortage.

“If I’m honest, when I see Alex crash, the first thing that goes through my head is, ‘I know that we’re down on spares’.

“Of course, I was a little bit concerned for where we stood as a team. But it’s one of the hard parts that we’ve had to deal with through the start of this season – not having those big safety nets.

“It’s somewhere that as a team, we’re really trying to develop to be better and get more on top of that early in the season.”

The good news is he will be back in action at the Suzuka circuit, although Williams have decided to give his Albon’s repaired chassis, and it is marginally heavier.

“Yeah, it’s the repaired one, just because the workload to switch the cars back over would just be far too much for the mechanics,” he explained.

“But yeah, the chassis repair went better than expected.”

“I believe it’s only 100 grams heavier,” he added. “So pretty much nothing.”

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Williams won’t have a spare chassis before Miami

But while Sargeant will be in the car for FP1 what happens next is anyone’s guess as Williams still don’t have a spare chassis, and won’t have one until Miami.

Albon was asked in the Thursday press conference if that, ‘after what happened in Melbourne’, would change his approach to racing.

“No, not at all,” said the driver who was one place shy of a point at the Albert Park circuit. “I think we’ve been like that since Bahrain and it doesn’t really change anything.

“So for us, obviously, it will be this weekend and China that we don’t have a spare car. But as I said, the mindset’s the same as it was from race one.”

Williams have yet to get off the mark this season, one of three teams without a point on the board with Albon claiming back-to-back P11s in Saudi Arabia and Australia.

He’s hoping to go one better in Japan.

“What we’ve seen so far, actually, is the car’s been behaving pretty well over the races, better than last year,” he said.

“I think Melbourne was maybe a little bit more like it was last year, but… I think we’ve made a step in race pace generally. So hopefully more of the same here this weekend.”

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