Logan Sargeant left home aged 12 with a racing dream. A decade on, he's made it to F1

Now he’s made it. There was a time, when he was taking drives in the European Le Mans Series and Michelin Le Mans Cup for GT3 cars, when he didn’t think F1 was going to happen for him. “I was 100% sure it was dead at that point,” he admits. “I thought I was heading towards the LMP or IndyCar route. At the time I was content with that. In the end it was all beneficial and helped me massively. I’m glad I did it all.

“I would describe myself as someone who has put in a lot of sacrifice and work and moved to Europe at a young age to make this work and make this happen. I gave up a lot to have this opportunity and I feel like I did have a good junior career.”

For the past few years, Sargeant has lived alone in London, where he will remain this year. He admits it has been a little lonely at times, but when you are about to become a bona fide F1 driver life is a little one dimensional anyway. “I’ve enjoyed the hours in the gym and sim… he says. “I know it sounds boring, but that’s what I’ve been doing.”

There are plenty out there who claim Sargeant hasn’t earned his chance on merit, but Williams head of vehicle performance Dave Robson makes a decent case for him. “He’s progressed really well,” he says. “It was good to be able to get him in the car in Abu Dhabi for the end of season test, that was a really good opportunity for him to work properly with the engineers and get time in the car. I think he’s changed and improved a lot. He’s grown up a lot, it’s fair to say. When we first met him, he was quite quiet, timid, now he starts to talk and sound like a racing driver, a proper F1 racing driver. He’s now commanding as he should be.

“He’s got his group of engineers he’s been working with over the winter. In Abu Dhabi he was quick against Alex, he didn’t put a foot wrong. For sure he’s got quite a lot to learn when it comes to managing the tyres while also racing. That will just take time, get working on that from the beginning of the year.”

It’s clear Sargeant will have to play himself in, especially given that he’ll have just a day and half to get to know the FW45 in the official pre-season Bahrain test later this month, before he returns to the same venue for his F1 debut in early March. Still, he’s not making excuses.

“I wouldn’t say I’m going in on the back foot,” he maintains. “You just have to take things as they come. Having only a day and half of track time means it is absolutely vital to make the most of it. It is what it is and we’ll make the most of it.

“In terms of procedures we can go through that side of it in the sim. We’ve probably done a million starts, but also I’ve been learning the steering wheel and memorising everything, really going into depth on that. In terms of actual driving, I haven’t learnt too much. But I feel like I’ve prepared to the best of my ability.”

The pressure will be on from the first race, because that’s F1. “You are expected to perform at a high level week in and week out,” he acknowledges. “The pressure is always there to perform, no matter where the car is. You have to maximise it and get everything out of it. It’s as simple as that. It’s how you deal with the pressure and maximise your performance that counts. I need to come into the season willing to learn as much as I can, be open and adaptable and that’s how I’m going to learn. That’s how I will get the most performance out of the car. I’d like to be on top of it as quickly as possible, if not immediately and go from there. I don’t want to put a date on it. I’ll just fast-track as much as I can.”

His nationality is clearly a benefit, as he enters the sport in the same year F1 expands to three US races thanks to the addition of Las Vegas. But Miami will be his home race and will be special for his friends and family. Then again to many Americans Sargeant is fairly unknown because he’s done all his racing in Europe. “I think there’s definitely room to grow my brand in America,” is how he puts it. “That will be important going forward and having three GPs will help. Right now I’m not as popular as some drivers who currently race in America, but I’m going to work to change that.”

What could be awkward is the man who signed him has now left the team. Jost Capito has been replaced by James Vowles, formerly of Mercedes, as the new team principal – although Vowles will only start his new job later this month when his gardening leave is up. But Albon too was a Capito hiring, so the nervousness of a new boss who doesn’t know you is the same for both drivers.

“Jost was obviously a massive supporter of mine,” says Sargeant. “He gave me the opportunity to race in F2 and in F1, and he was a great person to work with. Ultimately he came back to this job after he’d already retired, so it was a big ask for him to do these long seasons. To have James coming in is another special opportunity. He’s worked with young drivers at Mercedes, so I’m hoping I can learn off of him. He’s going to be a great team leader and help push this team forward, with the experience he has at Mercedes which has a winning history. Hopefully he can implement that here and give us a great chance of moving forward.”

Exactly where Williams will find itself in terms of competitiveness this year remains to be seen, but Albon spoke with cautious optimism on Monday. “My main target is to see progress,” said Alex, “so we can improve from where we were last year. You can easily say that’s not hard, but in this world teams have recouped the losses [of the new regulations] and have made progress on top of that. Scoring more points clearly and being in areas where we can fight more. There were a few races last year where Q1 was all we could do. We should always be fighting for Q2.”

For Sargeant, he just wants to crack on after a winter of hard graft in the gym and sim. “It’s been full-on, but it’s been worth it,” he says. “I’m just super-excited and motivated to get going. It’s been a long time coming. We’re just ready to get to Bahrain now.”