Logan Sargeant

[lkjohnson1950]

Albon crashed in practice, damaging the tub on his car. Since Williams didn't bring a spare chassis, they have given Albon Logan's car for the race. LS is therefore a DNS. Adjust your picks accordingly.

[Dare]

I guess Sargeant has to pay for Alban's bad driving.

[Andy B]

Williams do not have a spare chassis anywhere and their best chance of a result is with AA in the car.
I'm sure this will generate plenty of debate.

[Dare]

Williams also said they have faith in Sargeant. Seems to me they don't. If LeClerc totaled his car would Ferrari make Carlos sit out

[cosworth151]

The ultimate in team orders. Sounds like something they would have done in the 50's.

[Jericoke]

I think this is a good thing for Sargeant.

He's got 2024 to prove himself, and there is no better opportunity to prove yourself than adversity.

He now has to respond to this.  Is he going to be crushed and fade away, or is he going to come back with fire and prove he belongs in F1?

[cosworth151]

This makes me wonder about the finances at Williams. I thought all teams carried enough parts to build a car from scratch if needed.

[Jericoke]

This makes me wonder about the finances at Williams. I thought all teams carried enough parts to build a car from scratch if needed.

Williams has been claiming their past financing let them fall behind other teams in terms of logistics investment.

There is a video (I'm not going to look for it to link it) that says the current car was designed using Microsoft Excel.  It's a bit of an exaggeration, but they do use a spreadsheet for tracking all the car parts which, isn't really ideal.  So each part costs more money because this is a 'money is time' issue, because instead of pushing a button to find out where a part is, what state it's in, or if the team needs more, someone needs to open a spreadsheet, sort the spread sheet, search the spreadsheet, and then go see if the spreadsheet is accurate (which it often isn't).  So assuming an F1 worker costs $100 per hour to the cap, a McLaren employee can check the inventory of front right struts in 8 seconds, and a Williams employee can check in 20 minutes.  Multiply that by 100 employees and 20,000 parts, you see how Williams expenses are eaten up by inefficiency.

Williams is updating their logistics, but until that's done, they're always going to be behind anyone else, and that means having a supply of spare parts is both more expensive for Williams, and take more time.

But yes, it's worth worrying over.