Formula 1
Sargeant "not where I want to be" after mixed first half of F1 2023
Williams Formula 1 driver Logan Sargeant says he is still "not where I want to be" but is pleased with the progress he is making during his rookie season.
Filip Cleeren
Edited: Aug 13, 2023, 7:43 AM
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Former F2 frontrunner Sargeant was drafted in this year to slot in alongside Alex Albon and found it hard to match his more experienced team-mate while making his fair share of rookie errors.
But in recent races, the American has made progress, most notably with finishing 13th in Austria and just outside the points in Silverstone, his best result so far. But the net result is that he's currently still the only full-time driver not to have scored any points yet.
When asked to sum up his season in Belgium, Sargeant replied: "Ups and downs, [I'm] not where I want to be.
"Over the last few rounds, I feel like I'm much closer. I feel like I've seen really good progression as of late and that's the most important thing.
"I think I need to clean some things up. I think, as a team collectively, we can clean some things up and that's what we need to focus on going into the second part of the season."
Sargeant has had to take his time adapting to the Williams FW43, which hasn't been the easiest car to drive and has lacked downforce compared to the competition.
Logan Sargeant, Williams FW45
Photo by: Michael Potts / Motorsport Images
"It's actually very, very small things but small things that make a big difference," the Florida native said when asked to expand on his driving style tweaks.
"There were points in the year where I was simply holding the brake too late into the corners and slowing the minimum speed down too much. I've gotten on top of that.
"Just inputs in high-speed corners, causing instabilities, things like that. There are countless things. It's all just very minor driving traits that needed to be adjusted.
"In terms of extracting everything from the car, whether that's in quali sim, whether that's in race trim, just the way the car needs to be driven, I'm just moving towards that step by step in many, many different ways."
Logan Sargeant, Williams W45
Photo by: Erik Junius
While fellow rookie Nyck de Vries has already come and gone after being replaced at AlphaTauri by Daniel Ricciardo, Sargeant says he is not putting too much pressure on himself to try and match Albon, who has had an extremely strong season to date.
And so far, Sargeant has received nothing but public backing from team principal James Vowles, who wasn't in place yet when academy member Sargeant was handed the drive.
But the 23-year-old has admitted to being frustrated with himself whenever he didn't extract the final drop of performance out of his machine.
"I wouldn't say I've put an insane amount of pressure on myself," he explained. "I think it's been mentally challenging how many things need to be done and not having much time away from it to sort of reset. It's just sort of mentally draining rather than super challenging.
"Obviously, I have high self-expectations. I want to drive well, I've frustrated myself plenty of times this year when I haven't done what I could have done and that's what it comes down to, it's me expecting to get the most out of myself.
"And at times I feel like I've just missed the mark on that a few times. And it's about cleaning that up, stringing it together better, executing better. And I feel like that's the next step. Because I feel like I now have the pieces to do at all."
Asked by Motorsport.com when he considers his debut year to be successful, Sargeant said: "I don't really have a set target. It comes back to feeling as if I've extracted everything on a weekend.
"We don't always have a car to score points, so it just comes down to me feeling like I've done everything I could, gotten everything out of it, start stringing things together better.
“And wherever that leaves me, that would be what I consider a success in a weekend."
Additional reporting by Matt Kew
Read Also:
- Vowles: Driver honesty best way of getting new F1 talent
- Perez: Szafnauer should have been given more time at Alpine F1
- Williams F1 success is still a five-year project, says Vowles
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