25 July 2023 , 10:19
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David Coulthard believes Williams rookie Logan Sargeant needs to improve significantly if he's to keep his seat in Formula One.
Sargeant, 22, delivered another poor performance at Sunday's Hungarian Grand Prix, finishing in 18th. The American is yet to achieve his first point in F1 after 11 underwhelming displays in the Williams, with team-mate Alex Albon picking up 11 points in comparison.
Coulthard's warning to Sargeant came after the legendary driver was asked about Nyck de Vries' axe at AlphaTauri. The Dutchman was brutally dropped by Red Bull's second team just 10 races into his F1 career to make way for returning star Daniel Ricciardo.
Like Sargeant, De Vries failed to pick up a single point during his half-season with AlphaTauri. Yet Coulthard believes Sargeant is the worst-performing driver in F1 because he is half-a-second slower than Albon, which is the biggest discrepancy between team-mates.
Coulthard's criticism of Sargeant came after he was asked on Channel 4 whether 10 races was a fair amount of time for De Vries to impress. As quoted by Planet F1, the Scot replied: "I actually don’t think it’s a matter of time, it’s a matter of pace.
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"This is a stopwatch championship, so you either deliver the lap time or you don’t. He was on average within about two-and-a-half tenths of Yuki Tsunoda, which actually, the worst-performing person on average is Logan Sargeant in the Williams.
"He’s half-a-second away from Alex Albon. He’s bringing money to the team and given a bit of space, American, that fits I guess the overall growth of F1 right now. So I think we should only ever look at the lap time rather than... this isn’t a personality competition."
Logan Sargeant is yet to make an impression in Formula One (Getty Images)Do you agree with David Coulthard? Let us know in the comments below!
F1's popularity across the pond is growing. The United States Grand Prix was relaunched in 2012 and has been held ever since, bar in 2020 due to Covid. The Miami Grand Prix was launched last year, while the inaugural Las Vegas Grand Prix will take place in November.
Sargeant is the only American driver in F1 and the first since Alexander Rossi, who competed for Marussia in 2014 and 2015. Despite criticism from Coulthard, Sargeant believes he's heading in the right direction. He is also hoping to learn from Albon.
"I think I'm making steps in the right direction, but I'm still not where I want to be," Sargeant told reporters ahead of the Hungarian GP. "There's plenty of work to still be done.
"But I see the progress. see it's moving in the right direction and that's what matters, I'm still striving to be better. I think this weekend in particular isn't going to be perfect for what we have in our car, but we'll make the most of it."
Sargeant added: "He [Albon] has been driving amazingly and for me being a rookie, it's been really good to be able to learn from that. He's really set the benchmark. He gets everything out of the car every weekend and that's what I'm trying to get to. So, he’s the perfect person for me to try and reach and it's also good for the team."