Sargeant apologizes to De Vries after their clash
Logan Sargeant apologized to Nyck de Vries after the Australian Grand Prix, following his failure to brake properly during the third standing start, resulting in him colliding with the back of the AlphaTauri driver and causing both of them to retire from the race.
In a chaotic race, where his teammate caused the safety car to come out on the seventh lap, depriving the team of valuable points, Williams driver Logan Sargeant made a costly mistake during the third restart.
An error, two abandonments
By locking his front wheels at the beginning of the first turn, resulting in his first retirement in his career, the 22-year-old American also took AlphaTauri driver Nyck de Vries with him into the gravel trap.
The last restart was quite strange. I had the feeling of braking as I had done in the previous two starts, but I had the impression that nothing was at the right temperature, be it the brakes or the tires.
« I pressed the pedal and it was immediate, the two front wheels locked and I couldn’t do anything from there. Sorry for Nyck, I didn’t want to end the day like this – it was already a tough day. »
De Vries, who like Sargeant, experienced his first retirement in his career, has responded to the remarks of the latter.
« It can happen. Everyone can make a mistake and a wrong judgment, and it’s a racing incident. We will move forward and hope for a better race next time, emphasizes the Dutch.
Still not quite over the chaos of Sunday… 🤯#AusGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/i4WBbZNJbu
— Formula 1 (@F1) April 3, 2023
An encouraging pace with hard tires
Before the incident, Sargeant emphasized the good pace of his FW45 on the white-striped Pirelli tires, at the expense of the medium ones that prevented him from maximizing the performance of his car on the Albert Park circuit.
I think that when we were on the right tire, that is to say the hard tire, we had a good rhythm. I felt that we were in a good position, and the car was in a good position, explained Sargeant.
« But we tried to restart after the first red flag with the medium tires. It simply was not the right tire – a lot of graining, it collapsed very quickly. It was really the end of our race, unfortunately, but I felt that once we switched to the right tire, we were doing well.
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