Williams reveal initial plans of holding Logan Sargeant back in F2 for another year

Logan Sargeant moves up to F1 after only 1 season in Formula Two.

Williams reveal initial plans of holding Logan Sargeant back in F2 for another year

Logan Sargeant

Logan Sargeant was in the running for the second Williams race seat early on, owing to his stellar performances in F2 and ties to the Williams driver academy. Although he was only considered as a serious candidate following his dominant victory in the F2 round at Silverstone, ahead of the summer break. Former Williams boss, Jost Capito announced in Austin that Sargeant would race for Williams in 2023, provided he secured a superlicence.

The American managed to finish 4th with 2 wins in the 2022 Formula Two season, thus scoring enough points to be eligible for a superlicence. The move will see the American replacing Nicolas Latifi at Williams. Latifi’s contract was not renewed after 3 unsatisfactory years with the team. Before Sargeant’s appointment, Williams were reportedly in talks with Alpine, hoping to take Oscar Piastri on loan for a year.

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Williams reportedly wanted Sargeant to spend 2 seasons in F2 before giving him the call-up to the pinnacle of motorsport. Sargeant took “quick steps” in the junior category and gave the team confidence in his talents. He won 2 races and showed enough potential, speed and maturity to convince the bosses at Williams to move his promotion up by a year.

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Williams reveal they were surprised by Logan Sargeant’s potential

Logan Sargeant
Logan Sargeant

In a recent interview with Autosport.com, Williams sporting director Sven Smeets releaved the teams original plans to give Sargeant 2 years to develop in F2.”We had a two-year plan with Logan in F2. I think that’s how everybody starts. When the season started, very quickly and especially Silverstone and the races after that, we started to see the potential that we maybe didn’t have to do two seasons with him in F2,” he said.

“We didn’t say to him ‘you need to win F2 or you need to be second’, it was just his progression in F2, the raw speed he has shown in one lap, and himself maturing. It was also how he develops here in the sim sessions, doing his physical camps we have for them, doing the media training. All that was starting to go in a direction that, by summertime, we saw him as becoming one of our contenders.” Smeets continued.

Sargeant’s call-up came as a surprise to many. Fans were expecting Nyck De Vries or Nico Hulkenberg to occupy the second Williams seat. Luckily, both of them have secured race seats elsewhere. Many fans are of the opinion that Sargeant could have benefitted from another year in the junior category. Time will tell whether the signing pays off or not.

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