The Case for Logan Sargeant

The American rookie has failed to wow, so why should he get a seat?

The Williams Formula 1 Racing Team has accrued an estimated $5.7 million in damages this year — the most of any team. While both Williams drivers make the top five crash cost list, the blame seems to lie solely on Logan Sargeant. 

Sargeant’s share has racked up to $3.9 million. 

From routinely finding the barriers in practice and qualifying sessions to repeatedly retiring the car come race day, the American driver isn’t having an exemplary rookie season. Sargeant’s seat is the last of 20 up for grabs ahead of the 2024 season. Speculation has swirled as the cries of discontent outweigh the arguments to keep the 22-year-old driver at Williams. 

With five races, one qualifying and one sprint shootout ending with a premature trip back to the garages, Sargeant’s season doesn’t scream potential. Fellow rookies Oscar Piastri (McLaren), Nyck de Vries (formerly AlphaTauri) and Liam Lawson (AlphaTauri) have each had better finishing positions and fewer race retirements across the 2023 season. 

Piastri’s car found itself fighting against the sport’s top dogs — Red Bull, Mercedes and Ferrari — once outfitted with upgrades. Both de Vries and Lawson have competed in only a fragment of the season, with de Vries coming in as a more experienced Formula E world champion and completing 10 races before he was axed. Japan marked Lawson’s fourth race subbing for Daniel Ricciardo. 

Both Piastri and Lawson have rightfully gained the respect of fans. Piastri stood on the third podium step at the Suzuka Grand Prix, his highest finish of the season. Lawson’s name was etched on the front page of every major sports site after he knocked two-time world champion Max Verstappen out of qualifying in Singapore. That same weekend marked Lawson’s best finish in ninth. 

The Williams rookie, on the other hand, has crossed the checkered flag in 11th at best. 

Sargeant isn’t performing at the speed or stature as other rookies and his skeptics are quick to use the comparison against him. But one year in the big leagues isn’t exactly representative. 

A puncture in Monaco, a malfunction in Montreal, a rupture in Miami, track times deleted and qualifying eliminations by just 0.000 seconds, have all put the Floridian in an unfavorable place for making up positions.

However, Sargeant has climbed up the standings on a few occasions.

In Austria, he qualified 18th and crossed the checkered flag in 13th. In Azerbaijan, Sargeant made it into the second round of qualifying for the first time. He then qualified for the final knockout round, putting him 10th on the grid, in the Netherlands.

Williams had a memorable home race at the British Grand Prix. Albon scored points in eighth and Sargeant followed close behind in 11th. The American driver sped up to fifth and seventh place in free practice two and three that same weekend. 

This doesn’t mean Sargeant’s season has been good. In fact, as his crash rate and zero-point championship standing prove, it’s been a poor first year riddled with bad luck and amateur mistakes. But it isn’t as abnormal as F1 commentators and fans have made it out to be. 

Rookie seasons like Piastri’s are impressive, but they are an exception rather than the rule. Before McLaren’s upgrades had the car looking like a top contender, Piastri had one finish within the points yet remained in the lower half of the leaderboard with two retirements. 

In a back-of-the-pack car, it takes an advanced driver to bring home decent points. Although Albon has done just that, he’s stuck by Sargeant towards the bottom in numerous races. 

The recent rhetoric around the Williams dynamic hints at a severe disparity in skill. While Albon has clearly been able to pull more performance out of the car and had an average 12.7-place finish compared to Sargeant’s 16.9, he also has more experience in F1 along with a short-lived seat at one of the top-performing teams.

Prior to F1, Sargeant competed across the European feeder circuit. Starting out with the Formula 4 British Championship in 2017, he went on to compete in Formula Renault 2.0 Euro, the European Le Mans Series and the standard F1 pipeline of Formula 2 and 3. 

In the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) Formula 3 Championship, Sargeant tallied up 10 podiums, three of which were in first place, and four first-place starts out of the 54 races he entered. Other F1 rookies had far better odds, like Piastri with two wins of six podiums and no starts on pole in 18 races. Lawson finished on the podium eight times across 34 races. 

However, Sargeant and Lawson were evenly matched last year in F2, with Sargeant only falling behind the AlphaTauri stand-in by one point in the championship standings. In the 2020 F3 championship, Sargeant trailed his teammate, Piastri, by just four points and bested Lawson by 17. The American driver consistently out-qualified Piastri. 

While junior series like F2 and F3 provide somewhat equal footing for competitors as cars have the same engineering build, there is no concrete link between a stellar junior career and a successful rookie season in F1. 

Mercedes driver George Russell, for example, debuted in the 2019 F1 season in the same position as Sargeant. Then a Williams rookie alongside more experienced teammate Robert Kubica, Russell had a rude awakening after winning the 2018 FIA Formula 2 Championship with 11 podium finishes, seven of those on the top step. In his first F1 year, the Brit retired twice with a best finish of 11th place. Russell’s average finishing position was 15th. 

In a recent 2019 rookie reunion interview, Russell was asked, “You won the F2 title but then had the least competitive car to start with. Was there any jealousy towards the others?”

“Yeah, a bit,” Russell responded and voiced his envy for Albon’s shot at a top-ranked team.

Before switching halfway through the season to Red Bull, Albon had an average finishing position of 11.8. When he took the second Red Bull seat, that average was cut in half. 

When it comes to cars, the playing field is never equal in F1.

Teams with smaller budgets are bound to be slower. Williams’ annual profit lags behind all nine other teams with an estimated revenue of $160 million and the lowest overall value of $725 million, according to Forbes. With an estimated earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of -$5 million, Williams is the only team expected to take a hit in earnings. 

In comparison, Ferrari is valued at $3.9 billion and is set to earn $680 million in revenue in 2023. McLaren, home to Piastri, comes in fourth with a value of $2.2 billion and a revenue triple that of Williams’.

All teams’ costs are capped at $135 million for the season, but top-earning teams have more room to reach that number while others are left reusing parts at the cost of performance. 

There’s no formula to standout rookie status. Some of the leading drivers in the series had rough first years, like Russell, and driver performance heavily depends on whether the team is accomplished and affluent. In the F1 game of musical chairs, most drivers are happy to take the worst seat instead of being left without one. 

There may not be a recipe for success, but F1 does has a benchmark system to ensure drivers who start in the elite series are qualified.

The FIA Super License acts as a points system that drivers must adhere to and requires that drivers hold an FIA International Grade A competition license, have a valid road car driver’s license, score a minimum of 40 points in the junior series and compete in 80% of two single-seater seasons.

Luck, a flush funding source and timing play a significant role in when and if drivers are eligible. The license checklist, however, is ultimately designed to ensure that on-track skill is the deciding factor. With a fourth-place F2 championship finish, Sargeant checked all the boxes needed to qualify.

Critics, however, have pointed to his inconsistency in keeping the car on track as a reason to oust him. 

Mick Schumacher, Felipe Drugovich and Lawson are three possible drivers who are rumored to replace Sargeant in 2024. However, Lawson is first and foremost a Red Bull development driver and, therefore, an unlikely candidate. With three race retirements, a costly crash rate and an average finishing position of 16.9 in his 2021 rookie F1 season, Schumacher doesn’t seem like a better option compared to the American. 

Despite complaints and the team holding off confirming his place in F1 next year, Williams’ team principal seems set on watching Sargeant progress. 

“We want him to succeed, and we want him in the car next year,” James Vowles, Williams’ team principal, said following the Japanese Grand Prix. “This is very much on us as well. We have taken someone straight from Formula 2, without any significant testing, put him [for] a day and a half in Bahrain in this car, and then wished [him] well on a season that has been awfully challenging for rookies, full stop.” 

Vowles went on to explain that although teammates are often each others’ biggest competition and therefore a progress indicator, the two cars aren’t identical. 

“First and foremost, Logan [Sargeant] is not on the same aerodynamic specific as Alex [Albon] was,” Vowels said. “We have updates that are on Alex [Albon]’s car that are not on Logan [Sargeant]’s, due to the amount of attrition we have had this year. So, often when you see a performance offset it is not quite what it may seem on the timing pages.”

Although Sargeant is costing the team millions, he also has the potential to make Williams that much or more.

Sargeant should ooze marketability. As viewership numbers soar stateside, his status as the first American driver to grace the grid since 2015 has the promise of profitability. However, his lackluster results have failed to stir up patriotism in the paddock, along with controversial family ties to Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani.

Two U.S. races this fall mean added pressure for the Fort Lauderdale driver, but also the opportunity to build a following on home soil. 

As Williams builds a driver lineup for the upcoming season, Sargeant’s ability to bring in spectators, sponsors and American dollars may be just as important as his ability to drive in a straight line.

Photo courtesy of ANP via Getty Images