{"id":18756,"date":"2024-02-29T04:00:55","date_gmt":"2024-02-29T09:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=18756"},"modified":"2024-02-29T04:00:55","modified_gmt":"2024-02-29T09:00:55","slug":"james-vowles-logan-sargeant-must-step-it-up-in-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/02\/29\/james-vowles-logan-sargeant-must-step-it-up-in-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"James Vowles: Logan Sargeant must &#8220;step it up&#8221; in 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>Williams team principal James Vowles makes clear that improvement is necessary from Logan Sargeant this year.<\/h3>\n<p>Excluding the driver merry-go-round at AlphaTauri last year, Williams was among the only teams to generate intrigue in the market. More specifically, Logan Sargeant became a scrutinised figure as the season progressed.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the FW45 proving one of the best cars made in Grove for some time, only one driver consistently secured points in 2023.<\/p>\n<p>It was <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/02\/27\/f1-news-helmut-marko-addresses-alex-albon-red-bull-rumours\/\" target=\"_self\">Alex Albon<\/a> who regularly put the team in contention for top-10 results. Meanwhile, his young teammate was usually a few steps behind.<\/p>\n<p>This is not necessarily anything out of the ordinary.<\/p>\n<p>Rookies in Formula 1 typically take some time to get up to speed. A lack of testing further compounds this fact.<\/p>\n<p>However, there is no denying that Sargeant did not achieve the results his machinery was capable of.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"ZfZf70wNSjtKdGR0n94DeA\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/2026347015\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'ZfZf70wNSjtKdGR0n94DeA',sig:'KPGBh2I8IFp7I4za_Tjq-fXym8tiVDgmmwywM7-WhhU=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'2026347015',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<p>For a team fighting in a fiercely competitive midfield, having two drivers that can regularly score points is essential.<\/p>\n<p>With Aston Martin and <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/02\/28\/f1-news-lando-norris-reveals-red-bulls-closest-rival-in-2024\/\" target=\"_self\">McLaren<\/a> cementing themselves at the front, F1 is becoming increasingly cut-throat on those in the lower midfield.<\/p>\n<p>Because of this, James Vowles has outlined that progress is essential this season:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>&#8220;He knows what he was doing last year, that&#8217;s not fit for purpose anymore,&#8221; <\/em>he told F1.<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;We have to step it up.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;He had to be the surprise of the season and use the knowledge base that he spent 12 months gathering to good effect.&#8221;<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><a id=\"TkNPVMYxTD1pEiQ4QuYXqA\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/2027765042\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'TkNPVMYxTD1pEiQ4QuYXqA',sig:'dCYTjlyFymESMyLch7lwLH1cw4fbjTne4lKEcd_6VC0=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'2027765042',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Now or never for Sargeant<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>The Williams team boss went on to elaborate that Sargeant is already showing &#8220;confidence&#8221; that he can take this desired step.<\/p>\n<p>Whilst the American received something of a grace period last season, the stakes have risen for 2024.<\/p>\n<p>Considering the near-instant pace shown by Liam Lawson last season, alongside the plethora of exciting talents in Formula 2, there will be no excuses if Sargeant cannot match his teammate.<\/p>\n<p>The 23-year-old&#8217;s junior career is certainly impressive and more than justified his first F1 contract.<\/p>\n<p>However, only performances here and now can guarantee him a contract for 2025.<\/p>\n<p>James Vowles exercised tremendous patience and understanding last year, but it would be a mistake to forget the former Mercedes engineer is more than capable of being ruthless when necessary.<\/p>\n<p>Sargeant can begin to repay his team principal&#8217;s faith with a strong opener in Bahrain this weekend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Williams team principal James Vowles makes clear that improvement is necessary from Logan Sargeant this year. Excluding the driver merry-go-round at AlphaTauri last year, Williams was among the only teams to generate intrigue in the market. More specifically, Logan Sargeant became a scrutinised figure as the season progressed. Despite the FW45 proving one of the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4927,"featured_media":18757,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[2220,2244,68,2249,915,1693,94],"class_list":["post-18756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-formula-1","category-news","tag-2024-formula-1-season","tag-2024-season","tag-f1","tag-fw46","tag-james-vowles","tag-logan-sargeant","tag-williams"],"modified_by":"Jaden Diaz-Ndisang","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18756","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4927"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18756"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18756\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}