Williams needs to be bold and get rid of Sargeant asap. I have nothing against the guy, but he’s constantly crashing, sometimes more than once in a weekend. Mechanics must be fed up of constantly having to rebuild the car, and it’s costing a lot of money. Amazing he’s got a seat, and Lawson doesn’t.
To be fair, Mick Schumacher did show improvement in the second half of the season, scoring points, reducing crashes, and closely competing with Magnussen.
Logan Sargeant’s did nothing of these.
While Lawson shows promise, it’s doubtful he’ll secure the Williams seat. Red Bull’s decision to keep him in their development program after just three races suggests they’re avoiding a “de Vries moment.” Ricciardo’s selection for AlphaTauri’s race seat might be due to his marketability, crucial during the rebranding. Lawson’s role as a reserve driver for two teams positions him for future opportunities in 2025.
Yes, I’m not suggesting Lawson should replace him. It’s pretty clear he’ll stay in RB’s orbit, just in case.
Williams has Mick as reserve, but I’m not sure he’s the best option for them.
I don’t know what other options they have. Maybe asking for a loan from another team, but that’s a risk for the team loaning the driver, if something happens to one of their drivers. Or taking a gamble with a rookie.
But it’s clear they won’t improve and develop the car with Logan.
Now that I think of it… what if they ask Sebastian Vettel to help them? His experience could be great to try to make a competitive car.
I have no idea about money. I was under the impression that he was there mostly so Americans had someone to cheer for. But maybe he has some financial support. But with current rules, that’s not as important as it was in the past, considering the caps.
They started the season admitting they were not where they wanted, and slowly improved to be at the front. Great for them! They have good drivers and it’s nice seeing them at the podium.
Dunno about slowly, more like nowhere for ages then the huge Silverstone upgrade. The most recent upgrade seems to be keeping them in position, at least on these circuits.
Cautiously optimistic for next season though, we could see a RB, Merc, McLaren fight, with the odd Ferrari pop up. Or maybe Aston will take another step. They'd need another driver though.
Perez keeps fucking up Albon's weekends. Like, I'm sure that Checo is simply under pressure and making dumb mistakes - but I fully understand that Albon seems to think it's personal.
Perez is done. By far his worst race I think and really stupid mistakes. Plus getting out of a perfectly good car half way though the race is inexcusable. Do you know how much it costs the team to bring him and the car to a race? To have it just sit there when it has no issues is a massive financial drain.
Max pretty much single handedly won the Constructors Title for Red Bull. His performances for them the title with little help from Perez. I'm sure Max is getting a nice bonus after this.
Sargeant sealed his fate: he's definitely out soon. He's costing Williams much needed cash and simply can't keep it together. Lawson and Piastri are making him look really bad.
Mercedes is stronger than Ferrari. They've really bounced back in a big way and Ferrari needs to up their game.
Ferrari are still the worst of the front four for tire wear, until they fix that they can not compete at enough circuits to have a decent run at the title. They were faster than Merc when they had a small tire advantage (like Carlos with his 4 lap newer hards) but it went off way sooner than the other three teams.
If it gets closer between the top four teams next season then Red Bull are going to really struggle for the constructors as Merc, McLaren and Ferrari all have two high performing drivers each. I really cannot see Red Bull signing another top driver to sit next to Max, that's not Max's choice, but I just cannot see Red Bull wanting the drama or the potential for lost points to a team mate.
Red Bull really need to wangle Lawson into that second Williams seat, they have their own data for Albon vs. enough of their own drivers so they can use this to more accurately benchmark Lawson. I just do not see Danny or Yuki being the right replacement for Perez and there isn't many options further down the field right now.