The Japanese Grand Prix provided a few key moments of action that ultimately determined the race’s outcome.
Daniel Ricciardo and Alex Albon’s crash created a tactical battle few expected to see at Suzuka.
Analysing the race for Formula 1, Jolyon Palmer took a closer look at some of these events.
Charles Leclerc was the biggest beneficiary of the red flag as he perfectly executed a one-stop strategy to leapfrog both Mercedes cars and Lando Norris.
Fernando Alonso stuck to his guns and started on the soft tyre and he drove a very tactically astute race to once again outperform the outright pace of his Aston Martin.
However, several teams will want to quickly forget what happened in Japan.
Alpine’s race pace was incredibly worrying and despite Esteban Ocon managing to reach Q2 – much to his delight – he was never in contention to score the team’s first point.
Sauber potentially cost Valtteri Bottas a top-ten finish as they continue to struggle in the pit lane, although they avoided delaying either of their drivers for more than 40 seconds like in previous races.
However, Jolyon Palmer has admitted that Williams driver Logan Sargeant continues to make ‘random mistakes’ which are costing him each weekend.
After sitting on the sidelines in Australia, he failed to show James Vowles that he made a mistake in giving his car away to Alex Albon.
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Jolyon Palmer says Logan Sargeant keeps making ‘random mistakes’
James Vowles’s first full season in charge of Williams went much better than expected when they finished 7 in the Constructors’ Championship last year.
Vowles has suggested that the long-term success of the team is much more important than chasing short-term goals and that message has to be emphasized given their recent struggles.
Only running one car in Melbourne was a disaster and Albon narrowly missed out on scoring the team’s first point with Sargeant’s chassis after his huge crash in FP1.
Sargeant didn’t do himself any favours on his return to action, finding the barriers on his first flying lap in Suzuka.
When Albon’s race was ended by Ricciardo after just a few corners, the 23-year-old had the perfect opportunity to prove why he was in the FW46.
Unfortunately, Sargeant made the latest of his mistakes going to Degner 2 and Palmer has told the American driver he needs to cut these out quickly if he wants to improve.
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Another tough weekend for Logan Sargeant
Talking about the £15,000-a-week driver, Palmer said: “It’s just small inaccuracies that Logan [Sargeant] can ill-afford and the pressure.
“We know all the chat that came about with Williams’s driver choice in Melbourne but Logan really has a point to prove at the moment and he was having a good race up to this point.
“He made some good overtakes, and it was looking encouraging as once again the only Williams in the Grand Prix after [Alex] Albon’s early exit.
“But you can just see the inaccuracies here, from lap to lap there are just small differences in Logan’s line and this is why he just sometimes makes random mistakes during Grand Prix.
“Thinking back to Zandvoort, thinking to Singapore as well last season, these things happen just slightly too often still for Sargeant.”
Will Logan Sargeant be at Williams in 2025?
The mistakes Sargeant continues to make would have been noticed by people within the Williams team as well as Jolyon Palmer.
He’s under pressure to retain his seat with his contract set to expire at the end of the year.
Ralf Schumacher has suggested that Sargeant is ‘overwhelmed’ at the moment, although Peter Windsor believes he’s ‘over-delivered’ given the pressure on him.
There is already a suggestion that he’s going to lose his seat at Williams for next season unless he seriously improves.
In fact, Sargeant might only have until the Italian Grand Prix to save his seat before a Formula 2 star takes his place.
The post ‘See the inaccuracies’: Jolyon Palmer critical of £15k-a-week driver who keeps making ‘random mistakes’ appeared first on F1 Oversteer.