Logan Sargeant signs for Williams: How American rookie earned his F1 stripes

If Sargeant had a disastrous weekend in Abu Dhabi and all the other guys scored well there was a danger that he would slip too far down the order, and Williams would be left searching for a Plan B.

In the end the team didn’t have to worry. Sargeant took sixth in the sprint and fifth in the feature, and few of his direct rivals had much luck. He slipped one place in the final order, but fourth was still more than enough to guarantee him the seat, and it was a decent effort for a rookie.

The team duly confirmed him today, and on Tuesday he will have a full day in the FW44 at the combined young driver/2023 Pirelli test day.

“Since joining our Driver Academy at the end of 2021, Logan has been able to fully integrate with the team at Grove while on the simulator,” said Capito. “And more recently at the track during the four free practice sessions he’s participated in.

“He’s had a strong rookie season in F2, and we are excited to watch him make the step up in F1. We are here to support that journey with him.”

Sargeant’s arrival is huge news for the sport. In recent years Scott Speed and Alex Rossi were the only Americans to reach F1, and both did so long before the current surge in popularity for the sport Stateside. Sargeant will have three home races next year in Miami, Austin and Las Vegas, and the attention around him is only going to build.

“I feel like in the end of the day I’ve put in as much hard work as anyone else to reach this point,” he said on Monday when asked about that US interest. “And I just have to look at it as prepare the best I possibly can to be the best driver I can possibly be next year.

“And hopefully I can represent well and make them proud. But I don’t think it’s any extra pressure to be honest. So I feel like I have high expectations for myself as it is.

“For me the goal was clear, I needed to get my superlicence.”

“If I’m being completely honest, I really haven’t thought too much into it yet. Just taking it day by day. I feel like it’s all done in the prep. If I prep the best I can, and drive to the best of my ability, that’s really all that’s in my control. That’s all I can do.”

He’s keen to downplay the timing of his arrival coinciding with the Drive to Survive era: “I like to think it’s just a happy coincidence. As I said, I’ve put in the hard work over the past however-many years. I made the commitment to move to Europe when I was young to make this dream a reality.

“I feel like I had a very good junior formula career. And I’m just looking forward to closing that chapter and moving on to the next.”

Sargeant emerged a potential Williams race driver after the summer break, when the market was going crazy in the wake of Sebastian Vettel’s retirement and Fernando Alonso’s move to Aston Martin.

Oscar Piastri had been set to go to Williams on loan, but he went instead to McLaren. Rather than looking at an outsider Williams decided that its own youngster was ready – pending that pesky superlicence.

“I was kind of kept out of the loop on that,” he says. “I think that was more done between my managers and Williams. I wasn’t aware of that until after Monza.

“That was when it pretty much became concrete, as long as I achieved my superlicence. And I think they decided to tell me early in order to prep best I could and be as ready as I could for the for the last round.”

Fortunately he wasn’t sitting at home during the long break between Monza and Abu Dhabi, he was busy logging F1 miles and building his confidence with FP1 sessions. Nevertheless there was some stress around Abu Dhabi given that it could go wrong.

“I think there was trying to find a balance between risk versus reward really. And it was actually not as much pressure as I expected, because going into the weekend I’d become quite understanding of what was at stake, and quite at peace with it.

“So I just took the pressure off. I knew if we executed the way we could and have the same pace that we’ve had all year, that everything would be fine. For sure in the races, I had to find a good balance between being over-aggressive and under-aggressive, I guess you could say.

“I think, to be honest, once I got out there, I felt quite calm. Obviously, I wasn’t going to do anything that put me in too much danger. Because, for me the goal was clear, I needed to get my superlicence. And I think we executed well.

“Waking up this morning, it just felt very natural, I feel very at home within Williams”

“I was a bit disappointed with the pace we had on Saturday. But I feel like on Sunday, we had really, really good pace, which was which was a nice turnaround. And it was just unfortunate, the race didn’t quite fall in our favour. But for the most part, I felt really, really calm on Sunday, and felt like we executed in a good race.”

Was he given any targets to hit at the start of the season?

“Not necessarily. I mean, none that I was told in particular, it was just simply need to perform well, and finish somewhere at the top of the championship in order to get my superlicence.

“I think with Carlin, we had a really strong rookie season. And at times maybe we didn’t execute as well as we could have. But I think the pace we chose was very strong. And we finished well in the championship.

“I wanted to stay very realistic and grounded and know that I still had a job to do. So for sure, there was pressure on the weekend. And there was a bit of a bit of weight off my shoulders, when we got the job done yesterday.

“But to be honest, like waking up this morning, it just felt very natural, I feel very at home within the team. And it felt like we were progressing what we’ve been working on sort of the whole season. It really felt like everything just fell into place.”

Sargeant has made good progress in F2 this year, and the F1 mileage has fed into his learning curve as well.

“I think one of the biggest things with that obviously I’ve gone through an entire F2 season, I’ve learned a lot this year in all aspects really about myself, race pace, race craft, just driving a bigger and more powerful car as well.

“I feel like I’ve really nailed down my qualifying performances. But the most important is the amount of time that I’ve spent on the F1 simulator, the FP1s I’ve done as of late, and coming into this last test. That’s what really gives me the chance to push out of my comfort zones and improve the most.”

So what areas does he need to work on as he heads into his first F1 season? He’s quite clear on that.

“I’m very confident and comfortable with my one lap pace. I think that’s been probably my strongest hand since I was young, I think what I’ll need to improve on is just getting physically up to standard to go through a whole race run without having any issues, and work on race pace and management. That’s going to be the biggest thing.”

Sargeant is a good fit with Williams, and not just because of the American owners. The team has a history of helping to get young drivers up to speed, having done it so successfully with George Russell.

“You have this sense that they really have your back, and they want the best for you. And obviously, it’s been a super busy year.

“So I haven’t spent as much time as I would have liked at the factory through the season, just because I’ve been so busy with F2. I feel like they just really give you that feeling that, we’re a team, we’re in this together and they push you every step of the way.”