The American has shown flashes of pace throughout his first season in F1, but these have been outweighed by mistakes which have mounted up over recent races - with notable crashes at Zandvoort, Singapore, and Suzuka following the summer break.
This has led to speculation that Sargeant could be moved aside for 2024 should Williams wish to mitigate further repair bills, and the team has been forced to use older-spec parts on his FW45 to reduce the impact on production of new bodywork.
Vowles stated in a video shared across Williams' social media channels that his preference would be to keep Sargeant for next season, and that the team would work with its academy product to help make his F1 tenure a success.
Sargeant said that he was aware of Vowles' position prior to the video's release, but was blindsided by the public faith shown by his team principal.
"It's always nice, I mean, from my side I talk to James every single weekend. I knew that before anything was put on social media. It was just sort of a nice surprise, really," Sargeant explained.
"I didn't know that was coming. But at the end of the day, I have to just keep working hard, keep my head down and try to be better.
Source: Autosport