22 September 2023 , 12:10
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Williams rejected a proposal from Toto Wolff to field Mick Schumacher next season, according to reports.
With an AlphaTauri driver announcement imminent, Williams will soon be the final team to declare its 2024 drivers. Alex Albon's place is guaranteed by his multi-year contract and the fact he has driven exceptionally this season.
But Logan Sargeant has more work to do if he is to secure a second year in Formula 1. He remains pointless after 15 race weekends and, although team principal James Vowles prefers to measure the American's progress in other ways, he will only be able to give him so much time before he is forced to make a performance-based decision.
understands that, for some time now, Schumacher has not been in the frame for Sargeant's seat. Regardless, the close ties that Williams and Vowles have to Mercedes mean the Silver Arrows reserve has been constantly linked with the move.
A new report from F1 Insider claims Mercedes chief Wolff reached out to his former lieutenant to propose that Schumacher be given a drive. But Vowles, after weighing up the idea, chose to move on to other potential targets instead.
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"F1 insider knows Wolff did everything he could to make Schumacher attractive to his confidant, even providing him with data from Schumacher's drives in the Mercedes simulator," claims the report.
"But the last chance to get Williams to give a comeback [to Schumacher] in 2024 has been dashed. After studying the data, Vowles finally cancelled. Instead, Brazilian Aston Martin test driver Felipe Drugovich moved to the forefront as a possible successor to Sargeant."
It adds that Drugovich caught Vowles' eye with an impressive performance in FP1 at Monza, when he stood in for Lance Stroll. It is also claimed that the Formula 2 champion would bring around £13m in sponsorship money which would make him an even more appealing option.
Speaking to Mirror Sport last month, Vowles vowed to give Sargeant as much time as he can to prove himself. He said: "My plan A is investing in Logan and making sure we get the absolute most out of him. We keep forgetting that these guys and girls are in their young 20s. That's it. They're composed, educated individuals who know they are going to have to deliver.
" In Logan's case, he knows this is a meritocracy and he knows he needs to perform. But there's a no-blame culture. If you take someone and say, 'You're not doing a good enough job', what happens? It doesn't particularly help the situation.
"What he needs to know is that he has tremendous potential in him and he knows that. He knows that we tried to accelerate his journey into the sport one year too early, but it was the right decision at the time.
"What he needs now is an environment where he's able to take all that learning and use it to good effect, not worry about issues or mistakes but learning to build on them week in, week out. And that's the environment we're creating around him at the moment. It will take time.
"This is by far the hardest year for rookies by a long way. We don't have 'normal race weekends' anymore... Something is always changing so dynamically, you don't know what's going on. But he's dealing with it with maturity and he knows that I have his back and we're here to support him. Let's find the journey that pushes him up the grid because that's what I want for him as well."