Sargeant might just be 'the real deal'

The young Williams driver has shown he has the raw pace to succeed in F1.

At the end of last year, I wasn’t convinced Williams had made the right call to promote 22-year-old Logan Sargeant to F1.

To me, he felt too unknown. I also wasn’t sure a single season in F2 was enough experience.

But after his first two F1 races in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, I can see I was wrong.

Sargeant has demonstrated he’s seriously quick.

And new Williams team boss James Vowles says he did it right away.

“From the first laps of testing, immediately you could see that the pace was there,” he said in Saudi Arabia.

Sargeant has continued to show it throughout qualifying.

In Bahrain, he was just two-tenths behind Alex Albon, his vastly more experienced teammate.

Then in Saudi Arabia, Sargeant flipped the tables and went three-tenths quicker than Albon - though the record books will never show this as the qualifying lap was deleted due to silly track limits.

If the lap was allowed, Sargeant also would’ve nabbed a spot in Q2.

That sort of pace from a rookie so early in the season is mightily impressive, especially in a Williams and at a difficult track like Saudi Arabia. To me, it shows Sargeant has what it takes to succeed in F1.

And if that’s true, it means Williams made the right call to invest in his career way back in October 2021.

Back then, Sargeant was racing down in F3, but he had a murky future thanks to a lack of money. He was only able to jump up to F2 once Williams came on board.

In his maiden F2 season, he took four podiums - including two wins - on his way to 4th in the championship, making him the standout rookie.

And from there, Williams decided he was good enough to replace the crash-prone Nicholas Latifi, who had always struggled to keep up with Albon.

According to Vowles, Williams invested in Sargeant back in 2021 because “they had [a] deep belief that he was the real deal”.

“I have to say, he's now been in the car, I now have the ability to look at his data, and he is here on merit, and as a result of Williams investing correctly in him,” Vowles said.

While Sargeant’s pace is definitely there, he does need to cut out mistakes as he gathers more experience.

When he lost his qualifying lap in Saudi Arabia, he still had two more chances to set a time. But, he botched both attempts; spinning on the first lap and grazing the wall on the second.

Then, during the Saudi race, he burnt out his tyres and slipped down the order, finishing 16th.

Afterwards, Sargeant was open about having struggled with the tyres, but he was also quick to point out the big positive from the weekend.

“I showed this weekend that on a difficult track, I can be really quick.”

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F1 returns this coming weekend for the third race of 2023: the Australian Grand Prix.