Damon Hill’s “can’t suddenly become Max Verstappen” advice for struggling F1 star

1996 F1 world champion Damon Hill has urged Logan Sargeant to “drive a little bit within yourself” following an error-strewn start to the season.

It’s been a tough start to the season for Sargeant, who was unable to take part in Australia after Williams decided to give Alex Albon his chassis after the Thai driver crashed in practice.

In Japan, Sargeant was in the thick of the midfield action before a slow pit stop dropped him down the order.

The American driver then went off at Degna 2 but fortunately kept it out of the barrier.

Speaking on the F1 Nation Podcast, Hill offered some advice to Sargeant in terms of his approach to driving.

“There’s only so much you can do,” Hill said. “There’s things you can affect and things you can’t affect. And the things you can affect, obviously, are the things you need to put all your focus on. And that means driving.

“I think that his crash at Suzuka was a sign that he felt he had to do something brilliant as soon as possible. And I think that the panic should not set in, you need to keep a cool head to say, ‘Listen, there’s only so much you can do’. And you have to drive a little bit within yourself. You can’t suddenly become Max Verstappen in one mighty leap, you have to know yourself.

“So if he just does a good solid job in whatever race he comes up against, and just puts all the rest of it out of his head, because there’s nothing he can do about it anyway, then we’ll see what happens.

“It’s almost like you’ve just got to take everything corner by corner, literally, all that matters is doing each corner right. You join them all up together and the lap will be better and then you’ve got a better lap and then you go out again and you’ve got that as your foundation. You can break it down into making it very, very simple, rather than complicated.”

Former McLaren and Sauber driver Pedro de la Rosa also told Sargeant to continue to “work hard” in a bid to turn things around.

“My best advice would be work hard, do a lot of simulator days in the factory, make sure that there’s no wheel unturned from his side and also remind him that not all the mistakes have been done by him,” said De la Rosa.

“Let’s not forget that the crash in Australia was Alex Albon that crashed the car, destroyed the car.

“We are seeing many crashes from Williams drivers, some unfortunate. We’re just focusing on Logan Sargeant, but come on man, I think we have to give him a break as well. It’s not only him there.

“There’s been mistakes, some unfortunate racing incidents like Suzuka, which can happen, and just work hard, keep doing what you’re doing, make sure that not because you are feeling unhappy or depressed that at one point you start not working as hard, because it’s very difficult to keep pushing yourself every morning if things are not going your way. I’m pretty sure he will turn the wheel.”