I have to say I'm really impressed with James Vowles. The way he leads the team by example and shields them from unfair or unjust criticism is just refreshing to see. Williams seem to have a long term plan and want to stick with it, which seems very reasonable to me in this kind of environment. You won't make any significant progress by changing direction every couple of months.

I also appreciate the context they provide which is especially important in such a competitive sport. I really hope Sargeant can continue to improve, he seems like a good kid and I wouldn't want to change seats with him. You could feel the pressure when he tried to force a correction in suzuka qualifying by just using brute force in the last corner. you could feel the desperation and it was horrible.

Oh, and one other issue. I think the incident in the race with bottas was at least 50/50 between the two. If you watch the replay, sargeant already locks up his front right before valteri is even alongside him and it only got worse after that. Once he unloaded the front left and locked up, there was no stopping the car before the apex. valteri never had a chance making it on the outside. Sure, sargeant locked up, but valteri can't say he was surprised by this since the lock up already started before he overtook him.

I think it sets a good precedent that rookies get a chance to get a couple of seasons. If you write off a rookie half way through the season then you're not going to get any confidence from any future rookies. Plus there's fuck all testing time now, so a lot of the season is just getting used to the car.

Logan has very clear targets that he has to hit before the end of the season and we're working with him continuously,

I read that as they haven’t given up hope yet but are by no means saving the seat for him if he can’t get his shit together.

I'm glad they are supportive but at the end of the day, the budget only goes so far. If they are spending budget on repairs that's less money for development. Which means a slower car, and even less money next year.

I hope he comes right because he seems like a nice guy and it would be good to see an American driver in F1 long term.

I never thought about it, but what will happen if a team hits that year’s budget cap, and the driver crashes? Will they be allowed to spend more to repair the car?

I feel like all rookies should get at least 1.5 seasons before you look elsewhere. If there’s little to no improvement then drop them but dropping rookies off the grid because they don’t exceed expectations in a back market is ridiculous. Especially since there is fuck all testing time anymore