A rookie F1 driver has landed the unwanted accolade of finishing top of the pile in an alternative league table that shows how much each competitor has cost their team through car damages this season.
Max Verstappen may have cruised to the actual Drivers’ Championship in 2023 but it is Williams newcomer Logan Sargeant who has proven to be the most costly man in the ‘Destructors Drivers Championship’.
According to a table originally assembled by Reddit user u/basspro24chevy, the 22-year-old has finished the season having caused an eye-watering £3.4million ($4333,000) in damages to his own car.
The figure is more than four times the size of the American’s annual salary, which according to RacingNews365 is £820,000.
Sargeant’s expensive season had no equal, but just over half a million pounds behind the Williams rookie was Carlos Sainz, who suffered major damage to his Ferarri during qualifying for the Las Vegas Grand Prix when he drove over a raised manhole.
The Spaniard cost his Italian employers £2.87 million in car damages, finishing second in the table.
Sargeant’s teammate Alexander Albon finished sixth in the table with £2.2million worth of damage. It means that Williams also topped the ‘Destructors Constructors’ Championship’ with an overall loss of £5.61 million ($7,119,000) combined.
Before the season had even ended, Williams team principal James Vowles had already admitted that the cost of repairs to both cars would set the team back in terms of their future development.
Speaking after the Japanese Grand Prix, where Sargeant crashed twice, Vowles told Sky Sports: “We’ve had more attrition than was expected, it’s fair to say. We have enough to deal with this accident today. But it will mean we’ll have to divert attention away from other items while producing more spare parts before we get to the end of the year.”
Topping the damages chart puts Sargeant under unwanted pressure, with his F1 drive in 2024 far from secured. The American had been considered a long-term project when he was brought in but the man who brought him into the cockpit – Jost Capito – is no longer there.
When asked about the rookie’s situation recently Vowles did little to calm rumours that his time could already be up. Volwes told F1 TV (as per Crash): “Whatever happens Logan has been part of the Williams Academy for many years, and will always remain a part of our academy, and he is a quick driver, but if we step away from that – if you look at the last five races on how he has improved and is stepping forward.
“You can see signs that what he is doing is what he needs to earn the seat, but we aren’t in a position to confirm that. We’re proud of the steps he has made this season.”
