Ex-Formula 1 driver David Coulthard has admitted that Logan Sargeant is at risk of being dumped by Williams, following AlphaTauri’s “brutal” sacking of Nyck de Vries.
It was announced two days after the British Grand Prix that the Red Bull sister team had fired De Vries after just 10 races, despite it being his rookie campaign.
The Dutchman was therefore a huge talking point at last weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix, where Daniel Ricciardo returned to F1 as the 28-year-old’s replacement.
Many believe that De Vries’ sacking wasn’t justified given that he’d been given so little time, whilst he was also demonstrating some progress.
Want to work in Formula 1? Browse the latest F1 job vacancies
When asked if De Vries’ sacking was fair, Coulthard pointed out that the ex-AlphaTauri driver wasn’t even the “worst-performing person”.
Coulthard revealed that Sargeant is half-a-second slower than Williams team-mate Alex Albon per lap this season, whereas De Vries was on average two-and-a-half tenths slower per lap than Yuki Tsunoda prior to his firing.
The former driver believes that Sargeant has been given a “bit of space” at the Grove-based team because he’s “bringing money” into the outfit, something Coulthard doesn’t think should be the case.
The former Red Bull driver wants to see drivers judged based on “lap time” over anything else, with F1 not being a “personality competition”.
“I actually don’t think it’s a matter of time, it’s a matter of pace,” said Coulthard on Channel 4.
“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 Formula 1 right now.
READ: Haas don’t want to offer Kevin Magnussen a new contract
“So I think we should only ever look at the lap time rather than…this isn’t a personality competition.”
With De Vries having been fired, Sargeant and Ricciardo are now the only drivers on the grid without a top-10 finish.
The American desperately needs a points finish to warrant his stay in F1, given that the likes of Mercedes reserve Mick Schumacher are currently on the bench.