Contrary to popular belief, consistency is not always good. Well, it is if you’re Max Verstappen, whose key to winning a third consecutive championship was—you guessed it—consistency. In Qatar—where he won the title—Verstappen said, “To win three championships in a row, it’s never easy. You need a very good car for that but what I always try to achieve is being consistent as a driver. That’s something you’re constantly working on—to be consistent, to be reliable.” Two words: consistent and reliable. While Verstappen has been both of those, Logan Sargeant has been just one. And its repercussions are opposite to that of Verstappen.

Williams rookie Logan Sargeant has been having a tough year. Jumping straight into F1 from F2 with minimal testing time isn’t easy. That’s precisely what Sargeant has had to do this season. His crashes, which have seemed pretty frequent, haven’t helped his case either. Because of that, he’s topping a list no driver would want to. 

Logan Sargeant has comfortably beaten Max Verstappen in 2023

To think that anyone has beaten Max Verstappen comfortably at anything this season may come as a surprise. It may almost seem absurd. But Logan Sargeant has done it. Going back to the two words we used before—reliable and consistent—Sargeant hasn’t been too reliable for Williams this season. But, he has been consistent. How does that make sense? He hasn’t been reliable in terms of getting results like his teammate Alex Albon has been doing. He’s been consistent in the fact that his crashes are quite frequent. 

Owing to his crashes, he’s beaten Verstappen in the World Destructors’ Championship. Well, if you flip it around, Verstappen will be on top again, but that’s beside the point. As the name suggests, it’s a list of the cost of damages incurred by each driver in a season. Currently sitting atop it is Sargeant. He crashed in qualifying and the race at the Dutch GP. In Japan, he crashed during his first run in Q1. He crashed during the race in Singapore. During his first home race of the season in Miami, he crashed with Lance Stroll and damaged his front wing. The Spanish and Belgian GPs saw huge crashes in practice.

Putting all this together, he’s cost Williams a sum total of $3,906,000 in damages, per a Reddit post. On the other hand, the extent of Verstappen’s crashes has been his British GP pitlane mishap where he slightly clipped his front wing. That amounted to just about $220,000. That’s the lowest cost of damages anyone has had this season, and the difference between P1 and P20 is a whopping $3,686,000. 

Read More: “Cheating Gives You Wings”: Max Verstappen & Co.’s Dramatic $4,400,000,000 Damage to F1 Leaves Fans Fuming

As much as it may seem that Sargeant has been struggling to cope with life in F1, he and his team reasoned with his performances.

Williams is on Sargeant’s side

Sargeant’s seat at Williams isn’t confirmed for 2024. In these last couple of races, he’ll literally be fighting for his seat in F1. Over the past few months, owing to his crashes and subpar form, Williams has come under pressure to sack him for 2024. When Sargeant heard about the reports, he gave his reasons for feeling slightly out of place. “When Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton debuted, they had endless days of testing. Now, whenever you test in a test, it is with a car from a previous generation and that makes a difference. Even if it had more days during the winter, it would have been better,” Sargeant said. 

Despite his crashes, a key figure in his team believes he’s made significant progress this season. Following his crash during qualifying in Japan (his most recent one), Williams’ head of vehicle performance Dave Robson gave Motorsport his verdict on Sargeant’s progress. Robson said, “I guess inevitably, [crashes] catch the headlines, don’t they? I think it is fair that the crashes since Zandvoort have masked what otherwise has clearly been some steady improvement.”

WATCH THIS STORY | Biggest Pitlane Mishaps Featuring Hamilton, Raikkonen & Verstappen

What are your thoughts on how destructive Max Verstappen and Logan Sargeant’s seasons have been?