Williams’ new boss Walls readily admits the team must overcome years of underinvestment, which led to the recruitment of well-funded Nicolas Latifi, Lance Stroll and Serge Ciro Tekin.

Given F1’s surge in popularity in the US, some are marking Sargeant’s signing as the series’ first full-time US driver since Alexander Rossi started four races at Manor in 2015 – also attracted by its commercial appeal Drive he finished fourth in F2 last season.

But Vowles pushed back against claims against the young driver whose career was partly financed by Williams, saying Sargeant was a genuine salaried driver who “deserved” his place in F1.

Walls said: “I now have the ability to look at his stats, he got here by merit. He is now a professional and well-deserved driver because of the right investment Williams made in him.”

However, former Mercedes motorsport strategy chief Vowles admitted he had been “wrong” about Sargeant earlier as he opted not to sign the driver into the three-pointed star’s junior stable.

He continued: “He came to Mercedes as a mock assessment (driver) and I was interested to watch him because he has performances, especially when you go back to his Formula 3 performances in the normal team. He and Oscar (Piastri) together, I also rate Oscar highly.

Logan Sargeant, Williams Racing, joins drivers’ parade

Photography: Mark Sutton/ motorsport pictures

“At Mercedes we had a good group of drivers. So that’s where my relationship with him ended…Williams funded him because they were convinced he was the real deal.

“My silence is because it’s hard to really judge him until then … so it’s just telling you that I was wrong in my previous life and Williams was right.”

Sargent did impress at his debut Grand Prix in Bahrain, finishing 13th two places behind team-mate Alex Albon before finishing 16th in Saudi Arabia.

However, many thought he was lucky to escape FIA ​​punishment after colliding with Nyck de Vries at Turn 1 on the third start of the badly interrupted Australian Grand Prix.