The mystery behind Logan Sargeant’s early departure from the F1 Bahrain Grand Prix has been clarified. A steering wheel malfunction has emerged as the culprit behind Sargeant’s peculiar incident during the race.
Williams driver Sargeant found himself in a precarious situation, experiencing a lock-up and veering off into the run-off area unaided during Lap 10 of Saturday’s season opener in Bahrain.
Initially faced with the prospect of retiring from the race, Sargeant remarkably managed to steer his car back to the pits. There, the mechanics swiftly installed a replacement steering wheel.
However, Sargeant’s misfortune persisted as he plummeted to the rear of the pack, enduring a substantial loss of time due to the issue. Consequently, he concluded the race in a distant 20th position.
Providing insights into the mishap, Williams team principal James Vowles attributed the incident to a glitch in the steering wheel system. This glitch caused Sargeant’s brake bias to shift entirely to the front, consequently leading to his involuntary off-track excursion.
Vowles cited; “With Logan, we have an uncommanded brake bias movement all the way to the front, which is why he went off.
“The brake bias moved nowhere near where he requested it to be.”
Sargeant stated; “It was just doing things on its own without my asking. I don’t completely understand it from my side.
“We’ve had some electronic issues the last couple of days, qualifying and then today. So we just need to understand the core issue. We thought we fixed it, but obviously it came back.
“It didn’t happen again, once we changed the steering wheel, so maybe it’s something there. But we just need to understand the core cause for it, and try to not let it happen again.”
Sargeant’s teammate, Alex Albon, commenced the race from the 13th position but regrettably fell back to 15th due to challenges with the power unit’s temperature.
Vowles mentioned; “I know that we have a much faster car than that. The fortune is only – and I shouldn’t be thinking this way – in the fact that our direct rivals didn’t score points either. So it became a nullified race through circumstance.
“There were many things that just weren’t in the right place. First and foremost, you would have seen that we were suffering with engine temperatures from lap 2.
“That’s unusual. You can often have engine temperature issues, but normally manifest themselves a little bit later than that. We need to get on top of understanding that, that was very, very costly.
“So you didn’t see what we can perform with. I think the field is very tight. I think we have the potential to be P11. But not to be in the points, to be clear. We have work to do to get there.”
