Albon praises teammate Sargeant: 'He's a real gentleman'

A special situation occurred at Williams this weekend in Melbourne. Logan Sargeant had to give his car to Alexander Albon, who himself caused his car to be damaged by a crash. The Thai driver says he has a lot of respect for his teammate after Friday's setback.

During FP1, things went wrong. Albon found the barrier in Turn 7, resulting in damage to his chassis. As no spare chassis had been brought along, team principal James Vowles had to make a decision. Sargeant was told to give up his car to Albon, as there would be more chance of points if the Thai was in the car.

Albon says it is a strange feeling that he now gets to drive the car: "A different feeling, a weird feeling if I'm honest because it's one thing making a mistake and then being pressured to deliver a performance. But it's another feeling when you're obviously being given a responsibility. I take that responsibility. It's not lost on me. It was tough at the same time. The only thing you can really do is focus on your job and put it all behind you and treat the weekend like a normal weekend. Obviously a session down, but generally that's all I can really do. So far, I think we’ve done a good job. Just keep it going."

Albon has respect for Sargeant

Sargeant revealed on Friday that the situation at hand is the most difficult moment of his career. Albon says he talked to his teammate: "We always chat. We're very open as a team. I was helping him in FP2 and when the decision was made he was helping me. He's been a true gentleman. He's been a true team player in this whole situation. We were talking about FP2, the things that he liked and didn't like with the car. We got similar feedback. You can trust him straight away on it and start a FP3 where he left off."