New Williams boss Vowles has readily acknowledged the team must overcome years of underinvestment, which has previously led it to recruit the well-funded Nicholas Latifi, Lance Stroll and Sergey Sirotkin.
Given F1’s popularity surge in the United States, some have labelled the signing of Sargeant – the first full-time American race driver in the series since Alexander Rossi’s four-race stint with Manor in 2015 – as also having been led by its commercial appeal after he finished fourth in F2 last season.
