Williams has confirmed their junior driver Logan Sargeant will race for them in Formula 1 next season after he successfully secured enough points for his FIA superlicence.
Sargeant will become the first American driver to race full time in Formula 1 since Scott Speed competed for Toro Rosso – now AlphaTauri – across the 2026 and 2007 seasons. He will be only the fourth American to race in Formula one over the last 30 years.After joining the Williams driver academy during his final season in FIA Formula 3 in 2021, Sargeant moved into Formula 2 for 2022, taking two race wins, four podium finishes and claiming rookie of the year honours. He was also given four Friday practice runs for Williams in the United States, Mexican, Brazilian and Abu Dhabi grands prix.
Prior to the final round of the F2 season in Abu Dhabi, Williams announced they would promote Sargeant into an F1 race seat for 2023, subject to him acquiring the required superlicence qualification points. After finishing the Abu Dhabi round in fourth place in the standings, Sargeant ensured his superlicence eligibility.
“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 and more recently at the track during the four free practice sessions he’s participated in,” said Capito.
“He’s had a strong rookie season in Formula 2, and we are excited to watch him make the step up in Formula 1. We are here to support that journey with him.”
Sargeant said it was a “dream come true” to have the opportunity to race in Formula 1 after joining Williams as a junior in late 2021. “I’m ready and excited to be a part of this journey as the team looks to progress up the grid,”
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Asked by RaceFans how he had developed during his time as a Williams academy driver, Sargeant said his Friday practice runs and participation in tomorrow’s post-season test day are crucial to preparing him to step up into Formula 1.
“But the most important is the amount of time that I’ve spent on the Formula 1 simulator, the FP1 runs 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 zone and improve the most.”
Formula 1 expended its reach in the United States by adding a second race in Miami this year. A third US round in Las Vegas appears on the 2023 F1 calendar. But Sargeant does not believe he has been given the opportunity to race in Formula 1 solely because of his nationality.
“I like to think it’s just a happy coincidence,” Sargeant said. “I’ve put in the hard work over the past however many years, made the commitments and moved to Europe when I was young to make this dream a reality. I feel like I’ve had a very good junior formula career and I’m just looking forward to closing that chapter and moving onto the next.”
Sargeant says he does not feel any additional pressure to succeed in his rookie season due to his status as the first full time F1 driver from the United States for 15 years.
“I feel like at the end of the day, I’ve put in as much hard work as anyone else to reach this point,” he said.
“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. I have high expectations for myself as it is.”
View the current list of 2023 F1 drivers and teams
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Yaru (@yaru)
21st November 2022, 13:02
Congrats Sargeant
amian
21st November 2022, 13:57
Congrats for the money he will earn for driving around in Williams an absolute backmarker in F1.
Imre (@f1mre)
21st November 2022, 15:02
An “absolute backmarker” team would have about 0% chance of getting out of Q1, let alone scoring points without many DNFs.
Williams are far from this status.
Gavin Campbell
21st November 2022, 13:32
I don’t know how I feel about Sargeant – on paper he’s not got the record that suggests he’ll be any better than Latifi or Schumacher who managed to win F2.
However he was a narrow 3rd in 2020 in F3 (Piastri – 164, Pouchaure – 161 and 160 for Sargeant) that could of gone either way. After a very indifferent 2021 in F3 he’s raced to 4th (that would probably of been 3rd if he wasn’t just bringing it home for the superlicense) as a rookie (albeit he did 1 round last year).
Pouchaure and Drugovich seem like better bets to me, I’m not really sure how much of an upgrade on Nicolas Latifi Williams are going to get.
Fihar (@)
21st November 2022, 14:20
He raced for Charouz in the 2021 F3 season, a team that’s considerably lower in the pecking order than the Prema he challenged the title with the previous year. Considering Charouz has never finished on the podium in F3 before Sargeant came along, much less a win, he’s done some wonderful work that year.
And to think he was lucky to get that seat given his well-known budget issues. I can’t remember exactly what happened, but his family got hit hard by COVID and he was close to bowing out of single-seaters completely before Charouz, and then Williams, threw him a lifeline.
This is why you can’t simply look at the points table to make your judgment, the standings is only half the story. Sargeant is rapid over one lap, and he’s quick to adapt to F2.
Of course, I thought Tsunoda had all the tools to shine in F1 as well, but I’ve been proven wrong. But to suggest Sargeant won’t be much of an upgrade over a journeyman like Latifi is insane.
Jere (@jerejj)
21st November 2022, 15:19
Since he got provisionally confirmed on the COTA weekend, this separate confirmation is effectively an official one.
However, the moment he crossed the timing line for 4th in the feature race was the specific moment when everything became set in stone.
He should at least be an improvement from Latifi, but I’m positive he’ll do decently well, even if only time will eventually tell.
Paulsf1fix
21st November 2022, 19:11
If I had been Williams I would have signed Mick Schumacher and got Logan to have done another year in F2. However it’ll be interesting to see what LS can do in F1 for next year.