One of the most notorious events in qualifying for the Japanese Grand Prix was Logan Sargent’s accident at the beginning of the first segment. The American’s car skidded on the gravel in the final corner and hit the speed bumps at high speed.
The rookie could be forgiven for the error, but this is the fourth consecutive weekend in which Sargent has been involved in incidents of varying severity. In the context of another accident, we remember other incidents of the American this season.
Qualifying results at Suzuka:
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Broken season
Surprisingly, the season started relatively well for Logan. In Bahrain he became the best rookie in the classification and reached the finish line in 12th position. In the Saudi Arabia stage, Sargent had problems in qualifying (not a single clean lap in Q1), but in the race he again looked quite decent: 16th place at the end.
The first incident involving an American occurred in Melbourne, when on the restart Logan failed to brake and collided with Nick de Vries. However, in that case, the newcomer could understand: after a long period of warning signs, the tires were cold, it was easy to miscalculate. Furthermore, one of the main antiheroes of that race was Alex Albon, who was sixth, but suddenly fell into the stops.
Sargent accident in Baku
Photo: twitter.com/f1
Sargent’s first truly major accident in Formula 1 was a crash in speed qualifying in Baku. The American failed to fit into Turn 16, crashed into the wall, spun his rear suspension and was unable to compete in the short race. To be fair, we note that the debutant had minimal chances of finishing in the top eight in the sprint; even Albon finished that race only ninth.
At the next stage, the Miami Grand Prix, at home, Sargent lost his front wing on the first lap and ruined his race. “I placed the car where I shouldn’t have,” the driver admitted after the finish line. In Monaco, Logan avoided incidents, but crashed the car in final practice in Spain, misjudging the speed in the final corner.
Departure in Barcelona
Photo: twitter.com/f1
After this, the American managed to recover. There were no accidents in Canada and Austria, and in the United Kingdom Sargent finished 11th, his best result to date. But then came the Belgian Grand Prix and another accident: in the first braking practice at Le Combe, Williams was dragged beyond the corner and crashed into the wall.
In Zandvoort, Sargent crashed his car twice. First, the American spun in qualifying, in which he reached the final for the first time, and the next day the car went out of control in turn six; In both cases, the driver crashed into the barriers at high speed. True, as it turned out a little later, the accident in the race was caused by a hydraulic failure after hitting one of the curbs, so the pilot was not particularly to blame for this episode.
Sargent’s car after the qualifying accident at Zandvoort
Photo: Peter Fox/Getty Images
Finally, at Monza, Logan made contact with Valtteri Bottas, for which the American received a five-second penalty. In this case there were no serious injuries, both runners reached the finish line, however, the incident is an incident. In Singapore, Sargent fails one of the brakes and breaks his nose, and in Japan he crashes into the buffers already on the first fast qualifying lap.
Thus, in the 16 stages of the season (if we count Japan), Sargent at least eight times (if we do not count Italy) had quite big accidents and crashed his car. That is, on average, Logan goes off track once every two times, and this is just a depressing statistic. At the same time, it cannot be said that Sargent does not have any talent.
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Logan has speed. At least it was
In 2017, he was third in British F4 and only 20 points behind Oscar Piastri (the champion was then Jamie Caroline, who did not have the money to continue developing his career). Three years later, Sargent fought again with Piastri, already in Formula 3, and now lost to him by only four points. It is true that for Logan this was already the second season of the series, while Oscar had just joined it.
In total, Sargent spent three years in F3 and did not debut in Formula 2 until 2022. In addition, Logan also looked good: he won two long races and finished fourth in the championship, losing only one point to Liam Lawson, who had more experience in this series.
Sargent after the accident in Japan.
Photo: Mark Thompson/Getty Images
It is now clear that the transition to Formula 1 this year was rushed. The cyclist lacks experience and confidence, and with each mistake he only feels even more pressure and therefore causes new mistakes. If we add to this the stable lag behind Albon in race pace, it is completely incomprehensible why Williams wants to extend the driver’s contract.
Grove probably believes in Logan’s potential and doesn’t want to end his career; If Sargent loses his place at Williams now, it is almost certain that we will never see him again in Formula 1. On the other hand, Liam Lawson, who showed himself very well replacing Daniel Ricciardo, is left without a place for the 2024 season. And Mick Schumacher is still on the bench, although even he did not suffer accidents that frequently.
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