It’s safe to say that Williams Racing are struggling with their season. The team, made up of drivers Alex Albon and Logan Sargeant, have seen a fair few issues and accidents despite only being a few races into the 2024 season. As well as this, there have been discussions around the idea that Williams Racing have been blatantly choosing to favour Albon over his teammate, which many people are deeming as unfair. But, why exactly are people coming to this conclusion?
An overview of Williams Racing:
Williams Grand Prix Engineering was founded in 1977 by Sir Frank Williams, after his previous team, Frank Williams Racing Cars, failed to succeed. The current team principal of the Williams team is James Vowles, who has been in charge since January 2023. The racers for this team are Alex Albon and Logan Sargeant, two drivers who have both worked their way up to their successes.
The 2024 Williams Livery (Credit: https://www.williamsf1.com/posts/caeb28b6-d13f-4fc6-a17b-8014f6c854a3/williams-racing-reveals-2024-formula-1-livery)
Alex Albon:
Alex Albon is a Thai-British racing driver who has been a part of Formula One since 2019, along with McLaren driver Lando Norris. The driver originally competed under Red Bull Junior Team Toro Rosso (now known as Visa Cash App RB) and was majorly impressive in his debut season. The rookie was quickly promoted to Red Bull itself midway through the season. Albon carried on this success throughout the following races, managing to place in a top six position in an incredible 8 out of 9 races in his 2019 season.
Sadly for Albon, the impressive streak could not be carried forward into the following season. The racer struggled to make a lasting effect in the 2020 season, only managing to gain 105 points in the drivers’ championship as opposed to Verstappen’s noteworthy 214 points. . Unfortunately, this marked the end of Albon’s time at Red Bull, with the driver replaced by Sergio Perez, who still makes up one half of the Red Bull driver lineup. However, Albon was kept on as the test and reserve driver for the team, which ultimately saw him land a place driving under the Williams name at the beginning of the 2022 season. Despite a beginning of highs and lows, the Thai driver’s skill and perseverance has meant that he has found himself in a strong position racing under the acclaimed name of Williams Racing. In 2023, Alex Albon placed a strong 13th in the drivers’ championship; a massive jump up from 19th the year before. It would therefore be expected that we have not seen the best of Alex Albon, nor the best that Williams has to offer.
Logan Sargeant:
The 2024 season marks the young American’s second Formula One season, racing under Williams in both of those appearances. Sargeant’s entrance into F1 saw the first American racer in almost eight years, a statistic that is almost certainly daunting for the young driver. However, Logan’s previous success in motorsports means that he is clearly not lacking when it comes to experience racing.
After finishing third in both British F4 and F3, Williams made sure to capitalise on Sargeant’s talent, taking him under their wing whilst he was competing in F2. After securing enough wins and points to gain his Super License, the American driver was promoted to Formula One at the beginning of the 2023 season.
Of course, moving upwards has been anything but easy for the rookie. Sargeant completed the 2023 season in a spectacularly disappointing 21st, below Liam Lawson who only had a short stint in the season after taking the place of Daniel Ricciardo who was recovering from surgery. However, with it only being his first season in Formula One, it was to be expected that there would certainly be some hiccups. Sargeant’s most notable performance was at the United States Grand Prix in 2023 where he was granted his first point after being promoted to 10th as a result of the disqualifications of Hamilton and Leclerc.
The 2024 season, however, has certainly brought some obvious setbacks for both Logan Sargeant and Alex Albon. During free practice 1 of this season’s Australian Grand Prix, Alex Albon ended up in the wall after losing his car, and as a result his car gained significant damage to its chassis. Because of this, it meant that Williams were unable to repair the car in time for the Grand Prix, as the team had failed to bring a spare chassis in case of an accident like this. However, rather than Alex Albon being forced to sit out of this race, it was decided that his teammate Logan Sargeant would consequently be unable to race as his car was assigned to Albon instead. Naturally, this caused large amounts of upset and questions, as it was deemed unfair that the driver who did not crash his car was the one who ultimately had to pay the price. Considering his uncertain future in Formula One, this would have certainly added more pressure to Sargeant, as he was forced to withdraw from the opportunity to potentially gain points and prove himself worthy of retaining his seat for the 2025 season. Albon went on to finish the Australian Grand Prix in 11th position, unfortunately resulting in him failing to gain points. Clearly, this weekend is one to be forgotten about for Williams Racing.
Sadly for Williams, they suffered from even more setbacks in the following Grand Prix. The Japanese race took place a fortnight later, which allowed for Williams to reflect back on previous mistakes and attempt to correct any errors or damage that was obtained during the prior race. This would be Williams’ chance at gaining points for the first time this season, with both drivers being able to compete in Suzuka.
However, that dream was short lived with Logan Sargeant managing to put his car in the wall at turn 7, once again during the first free practice session of the weekend. Luckily for the American, his car was not as badly damaged as Albon’s was two weeks prior, meaning that he was able to race in the Grand Prix, finishing in 17th place.
Alex Albon, on the other hand, suffered from yet another crash which ultimately saw his Suzuka race cut short. The Thai driver collided with Daniel Ricciardo during the first lap of the race, resulting in both cars ending up in the barriers and unable to continue due to extensive damage. The crash was eventually put down to a racing incident, with both drivers leaving uninjured but expectedly frustrated with what had happened. As a result of this, Albon once again had a weekend full of issues and setbacks, leaving the Williams driver without any points.
Williams suffered from major setbacks over the course of the Suzuka weekend (credit: https://www.williamsf1.com/posts/ea8a56b7-5eb6-4dbb-9da6-6a21dcd04d33/report-a-tough-race-in-suzuka)
Evidently, this season so far for Williams Racing has been anything but smooth sailing. A lack of preparation when it comes to replacement parts, several spins and crashes, and a couple of difficult decisions has meant that Williams have been unable to make any type of an impact, apart from the ones that left them with a car in the wall. Whilst it was a questionable decision to replace Albon in place of Sargeant, it can be said that Williams clearly were trying to gain points using the experience of Albon as opposed to Sargeant, who is still very much new to the world of Formula One. Nevertheless, I would hope that James Vowles and the rest of the team are able to bounce back from these issues, and gain some points as we look forward to the Chinese Grand Prix.
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