28 September 2023 , 06:00
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Williams could yet buck the trend of this Formula 1 season and choose to make a change for 2024.
In terms of the driver market, it has been a remarkably quiet year. It looked to have burst into life when AlphaTauri decided to replace Nyck de Vries mid-season, but that move turned out to be the outlier in a drama-free silly season.
They had another decision to make regarding their 2024 drivers. But Yuki Tsunoda, along with De Vries' replacement Daniel Ricciardo, have been given new deals meaning Liam Lawson, as it stands, will spend another year as a Red Bull reserve.
And everyone else with drivers who started this season with less than a year to run on their contracts also decided against making a change. That leaves just one seat at Williams yet to be set in stone.
Sargeant hasn't scored a single point in his first 16 F1 race weekends and that is definitely a cause for concern. Alex Albon has proven that their car is capable of scoring on a regular basis, but the American rookie has not managed to find that level of performance just yet.
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Team principal James Vowles will be as patient with Sargeant as he can be. But, with his sleeping giant of a team showing signs of moving in the right direction, he must decide whether Williams can afford risking a second year of only one driver scoring points.
And if the answer he comes up with is 'no', then he has a second decision to make. Which available driver will be more likely to deliver the results the team needs than Sargeant, who has the advantage of being familiar with how the team works and is gathering more experience with each passing weekend?
Mick Schumacher looks unlikely to land an F1 role in 2024 (Getty Images)Mick Schumacher has been heavily linked for months – a natural occurrence due to the fact he is reserve for Mercedes this season. Both Williams and Vowles himself have very strong links to the Silver Arrows and Toto Wolff is said to have personally suggested that the German should be considered for a 2024 seat.
But it is understood that, despite the intense speculation, Schumacher has not been under serious consideration for a Williams berth. Instead, Vowles is likely to turn to one of two others if he does decide to make a change.
Lawson is available after AlphaTauri's decision to continue with their current driver line-up next year. A Williams move for the New Zealander would be popular among F1 fans, given his excellent performances for Red Bull's sister team in the place of the injured Ricciardo.
It remains to be seen whether Red Bull would sanction a loan-style deal to allow Lawson to race for Williams for a year, though Christian Horner did not rule it out when the idea was posed to him. Similarly, Vowles did not dismiss the suggestion of a move for the 21-year-old when he was asked about it at the Japanese Grand Prix.
But Lawson would face competition from another young hotshot who has entered the frame. Felipe Drugovich has no experience of racing in F1, but is a Formula 2 champion who has done a fair bit of driving for Aston Martin this season, replacing the injured Lance Stroll during pre-season testing and taking part in FP1 at Monza earlier this month.
The Brazilian is contracted to Aston Martin as the team's reserve and test driver, so Williams would need to strike a deal if Vowles were to decide to pursue that option. But there is a possibility that Drugovich might finally get his chance next year.