04/04/2024
NEWS STORY
Logan Sargeant will drive Alex Albon's repaired Melbourne car at Suzuka this weekend, with no hope of a spare until Miami.
After Albon crashed out in the opening session in Melbourne, Williams controversially opted to withdraw Sargeant from the remainder of the weekend and give his car to his Thai teammate.
This weekend, Albon will continue with the car he used in Australia while Sargeant gets the Thai driver's repaired car.
"It's the repaired one because the workload to switch the cars back over would be far too much for the mechanics," the American told reporters at Suzuka. "The chassis repair went better than expected, so it should be perfectly normal as far as I'm aware."
Asked how he felt about the decision to withdraw him, Sargeant said: "It's a situation that we had to deal with through the first three races. We went to Saudi with the same situation and of course it's one of those things that you know you have to be careful, but at the same time, you can't be.
"It's Formula 1, if you're careful, you're nowhere. So it's really not even a question. You have to be committed, confident and hope nothing goes wrong!
"I understand the statistics behind it, but at the same time of course I wanted to drive. I was just feeling like I had a good Friday. I just really wanted to build on that and felt like I was in a good place. I feel like I've been in a good place since the start of the year to be honest, so I'm quite comfortable with where I'm at.
"Once I left Melbourne I didn't really think about it, I just got out for a week, tried to stay in my own little world away from racing and I feel as good as ever coming back here."
Ominously, last year Sargeant crashed out in Q1 at Suzuka necessitating the use of a new chassis. Come the race, Albon was eliminated after being hit by Valtteri Bottas who had been forced wide by Esteban Ocon on the opening lap. Though the Thai driver was able to continue, the damage incurred saw him retire after 26 laps.
Shortly before Albon's eventual retirement, Sargeant hit Bottas at the hairpin and subsequently pitted and retired as a result of the damage incurred.
Check out our Thursday gallery from Suzuka here.