Logan Sargeant proved himself in the latest F2 season by coming 4^th in the championship by bagging four podiums, two of which were wins at the Silverstone and Red Bull Ring feature races. F1 Feeder Series looks into the season which landed Sargeant a drive in F1 to see if he really is the man that the US has been waiting for.

by Jakub Czekalski

After two impressive seasons in the FIA F3 Championship, finishing 3^rd and 7^th in the standings in 2020 and 2021, former Williams CEO Jost Capito signed the young American to the Williams Driver Academy. This opened the door for a potential seat in F2, which came to fruition on 13^th December 2021 when it was announced that Logan Sargeant would be driving for Carlin in the 2022 F2 Championship alongside Liam Lawson 

Scoring points in all but four of his first 20 races, Sargeant was on fine form, gaining confidence and speed as the season break approached. The most memorable races of the first half of the season were undoubtedly his race wins at Silverstone and Spielberg, where he became the first American to win an F2 race. Sargeant appeared on this week’s F1 Feeder Series Podcast and shared his perspective from his win at the Red Bull Ring “That was probably one of the best races of my life, I was for sure lucky to be given the win in the end through a couple of technicalities for the others, but as a race as a whole it was one of the best I’ve done.”

As a race as a whole, it was one of the best I’ve done

Logan Sargeant

“I started on the wrong tyre and after the race, the pit wall told me they hundred percent thought the race was over… I remember I was so angry… I got into the pits and had like an F1 pitstop, credit to the team it was one of the best pitstops of my life.”

“I remember coming out of the pits, the track was still damp, and I was just able to get tyre temps really easily, and I was flying for whatever reason compared to the people around me.”

Sargeant was en route to a podium finish in the sprint race at Le Castellet, but was unfortunate enough to have his clutch explode, retiring him from the final round before the season break. 

Chance in F1

With Nicholas Latifi underperforming and his contract terminating at the end of the season, it was very likely that he would be replaced. As a result of Sargeant being the best-performing driver in the Williams Academy, fans started speculating that he would fill the second seat at Williams. On the F1 Feeder Series Podcast, Sargeant recalled the possibility of him getting a drive at Williams for next year. “I think at the end of the summer break, I came off a bit of a hot streak (Silverstone and Red Bull Ring win, podiums in Catalunya and Baku, ed.). At this point everything was going very well, we were super quick and that’s where I started to think ok, this is a possibility we just need to try and keep it up the best we can.”

That’s where I started to think ok, this is a possibility, we just need to try and keep it up the best we can

Logan Sargeant

After the summer break, Sargeant’s performance took a hit, and he didn’t take a top 3 finish for the remainder of the season. Although he retired from four of the 10 races, the American scored points every time he did cross the finish line

On 22^nd October 2022, Jost Capito announced that Sargeant would replace Latifi and get his chance in F1 for the 2023 season. Only one thing stood in the way of the deal being confirmed. The 21-year-old was 40 points short of getting a super license with which he could compete in the top flight of motorsport. A P5 in the Abu Dhabi Feature race ensured that the 21-year-old got the 40 points required for a super license and on the F1 Feeder Series Podcast, Sargeant reminisced about that fairy tale weekend “It was definitely a stressful weekend, a bit of relief but also nice to finish the weekend the way we needed to obviously get my super license points… it’s a bit of weight off my shoulders.”

Bar his F1 debut next year, the only thing Sargeant has to look forward to is the potential to get his trophy for winning the Red Bull Ring sprint after Richard Verschoor played and is still winning a cheeky game of hide and seek with it.

Check out the full podcast we did with Logan Sargeant down below!

Header Photo Credit: Williams Racing