Williams Team Principal Jost Capito has said that Logan Sargeant will race for the team alongside Alex Albon in 2023 if the American manages to get the requisite Super Licence points in the final Formula 2 round later this season…
Sargeant replaced Nicholas Latifi in the Williams FW44 during Friday practice at Austin, and in doing so he became the first American driver to run in an F1 session since 2015. On Saturday, Capito announced that the 21-year-old will step up to a full-time seat with Williams if he gets his F1 Super Licence.
“Yeah, we feel he’s ready to race,” said Capito, “under the condition that he has enough Super Licence points after Abu Dhabi, he will be our second driver next year.”
Currently third in the 2022 F2 standings behind Theo Pourchaire and champion Felipe Drugovich, Sargeant needs to finish fifth in the standings, or sixth provided he gains the two extra points for completing the season without receiving any penalty points, in order to acquire the 40 Super Licence points needed to make it to F1.
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Capito added that he was keen to get young drivers into F1 as quick as possible.
“He’s had one season in F2, and I’m a fan of getting young drivers as quick through as possible into Formula 1 because the series below, the cars compare to Formula 1 cars… so get him in as quick as possible and find out if he’s capable of staying in Formula 1 for a long time, which we believe he is.
“And his first year in F2, and he won races, and he has been qualifying very strong all these years in his career – and we believe he’s absolutely ready to get into Formula 1.”
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The Williams boss added that while Albon is 26 years old, the Thai driver has enough experience for the team to bring in a rookie in 2023.
“Yeah, I think we can have a rookie because with Alex we have a still young, but also very experienced driver. He is established so well in the team, fantastic results, he’s working well with the team – so we can put the rookie alongside him,” said Capito.