Under-pressure Logan Sargeant has hit back at comments from former Sauber and Caterham driver Marcus Ericsson, who claimed that he no longer speaks to his Williams boss James Vowles.
Sergeant is becoming noticeably more agitated as he faces uncertainty about his future in F1.
The growing speculation has spread to the US where Ericsson, who is now racing in IndyCar, says the American is struggling within the Groves-based team.
"I was also told this weekend by some American friends who know Sargeant, that he doesn't have fun in that team," he told the Viaplay F1 podcast.
"He thinks it's really hard, and apparently he and James Vowles, they don't even talk with each other anymore. They barely greet each other. It's completely cut off between them."
Reacting to those comments ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix, Sargeant hit back, saying it is not true that he does not speak to Vowles.
He snapped: "Marcus Ericsson has a reputation of talking about other people without ever even having a conversation with me in his life. Yeah, it doesn't carry any weight. It's not true. I just had a conversation with James here 20 minutes ago.
"Most importantly me and James, we both come here and we want to do the best for the team. We both work in the same direction for what is the best for the team. And ultimately, what's best for the team is best for me. So it's just it's completely untrue.
"It hasn't been a particularly easy season with the amount of things that have happened, both to me, you know, from a team perspective we've struggled in some areas.
"So of course it can look like our relationship's worsened, it is from the outside, but yeah, we just go to work as usual and keep trying to perform the rest of the weekend."
Williams is yet to announce who will partner Alex Albon next season, as its primary target remains Carlos Sainz, with Valtteri Bottas understood to be its fall-back option.
That means it is unlikely Sargeant will keep his place in the team and could move to IndyCar to race against Ericsson and other former F1 drivers including, Alexander Rossi, Romain Grosjean and Takuma Sato.
Sargeant has held talks with Prema Racing ahead of its venture into IndyCar in 2025.
