Williams F1 Admits Fault Vows Tool Enhancement

Williams F1’s Vowles accepts the ‘harsh’ penalty on Sargeant as a rightful decision, aiming to improve oversight tools.

Williams F1 Director James Vowles acknowledges that the penalty imposed on Logan Sargeant for overtaking Nico Hülkenberg on track as he was exiting the pits is correct. He even admits that the team should have informed the driver that he needed to relinquish his position, but they lack the tools to see such situations.

“It was a harsh penalty, when you see matters of tenths translate into seconds, it’s tough,” Vowles stated. “Moreover, it’s very difficult for the driver to determine whether he was ahead or behind. The responsibility lies with us and we did not assume it.”

“We need to develop more and better automated tools that allow us to see what’s happening at that moment, because it took several replays by camera before we could see where the difference lay. From the onboard videos, it was impossible to tell who was ahead and who was behind.”

“The way penalties work is that once they are pronounced during the race, there’s nothing you can do. There’s no appeal. Once the penalty has been given, that’s it, it’s adjudged by the FIA. Their decision was correct. We were behind on the line. Those are the facts.”

He confirms that Williams will work on new tools for this: “What we need to do is improve our system and our processes to ensure that we detect these cases more quickly because you can correct them. Logan should have slowed down a few seconds later, let the car pass, and that would have corrected his position.”