Due to Formula one’s popularity in America, some people think Logan Sargeant got his seat due to his nationality. After watching some of his performances in F2, nothing could be further from the truth.
Silverstone. One of the legendary tracks on the F1 calendar. The British track was the track Logan Sargeant earned his tentative Formula One drive next season.
When speaking to Racer’s Chris Medland, Jost Capito said that the British GP drive put Sargeant on their radar.
“From Silverstone onwards, we said, ‘OK, Logan is ready to be in Formula 1,’ But of course, that was so early in the season that you can’t commit because there are so many things to come….,” Capito told Medland.
The race was a fantastic performance from Logan. He finished fastest in the practice season and secured pole position after flying throughout the qualifying session. At the beginning of the sprint race, he started in tenth place due to the reverse grid rule in F2.
The sprint race was centered around tire management because the front four starters began to lose their tires. After the first few laps, Daruvala fell quite a few places. As Sargeant’s tires switched on, he began to gain a few places and finished in seventh place.
In this sequence, Daruvala’s tires fall off a cliff. He is losing a ton of grip as he enters every corner, hesitating to turn the car through all the corners. Sargeant’s tire has much more life and is responding more to him.
The track was wet, and Daruvala chased the outside line to find the wet parts of the way. Logan pursued the racing line, which gave him a slow exit, but a clear line to push the pace and switch places with Durvala.
Logan’s eye constantly looks for an overtake, whatever it takes to gain a position. This aggression led him to get up to Seventh and earn valuable points.
Logan had a good start in the feature race and grew a gap the entire time. When he entered the pits, he came out around tenth place. On fresh tires, he had a clear speed advantage.
On this move, he completed a simple overtake when there was such a gap in pace. He went for the outside line, hit a nice wet patch, and finished the overtake. This move was crucial because he was going for the undercut and pitted early. This meant he could not lose time behind a slower car.
Theo Pourchaire, the promising driver, considered for an Alfa Romeo seat, put pressure on Logan at the end of the race as Sargeant began to nurse his tires.
This pressure made the race more thrilling, but Sargeant switched on the tires in the last few laps and created enough gaps to win the race.
He handled the pressure well and kept his head down for a historic win.
The blue Carlin race car crossed the chequered line, and Sargent made American history. He showcased a ton of maturity on this drive, dealing with the pressure of Theo and the changing conditions on the track.
Given the machinery, he can put pace into a car and get it over the line to secure the results. On a team like Williams, it will be a long time until they deliver that kind of car, but if they become competitive, his pace can deliver results.
If Silverstone was the race that put him on the map, Austria was the race that clinched the drive for 2023.
Logan Sargeant qualified in third place. The sprint race began with a lackluster start from Sargeant.
Sargeant was slow off the line and lost a place. After the start, he started looking to regain the position he lost, but the result was that he was forced off the track by Vips. His reaction time was lacking at that moment.
The remaining sprint race held the status quo: Logan Sargeant finished in the place that he started, seventh.
In the feature race, a wet track dried after rain covered the entire track. Some drivers began on wet tires hoping the track would stay slippery. Others chose a bold strategy and opted for slick tires.
Sargeant and his Carlin engineers chose the wet tires to start.
The decision paid off early on; those who chose the dry tires began to fall back down the grip, creating a gap to those in front. Then, the track started to dry a significant amount.
The wet tires lose their advantage on a drying track, and those who made the bold calls to slicks rapidly gained on those who started on the wet tires.
Sargeant began falling down the order quickly, leading to an urgent pitstop to hard tires. It looked like the decision to start on the wet tires had been a disaster, and now his race was effectively over.
He came out of the pits on a fresh pair of slick tires in the middle of the pack.
After putting some temperature into the tires, Sargeant switched it on. On the overtake above, Sargeant sees a wide drying line. With enough space for both cars to be side by side, Logan went for an overtake through the inside line as Iwasa moved over.
The corner still featured a wet portion which caused a loss of control for s seconds, but Logan was strong enough to keep control of the car.
On those dry tires, Sargeant’s car just came to life. Even though the rest on the track were on a softer compound, Logan’s lap times didn’t give the drivers a ton to defend. The overtake above was a simple case of one care being faster than the other. At this point, 15 laps in, the track was drying, and cars could go two wide in response.
Even catching up to a pack of cars, Logan could gain some valuable places. Sargeant’s pace is just too great for any car to compete. He could quickly go around most of the cars on the track, needing fundamental moves to overtake cars.
Even with his pace, he avoided any reckless moves to decrease the risk of an accident. In this instance, he looks at the outside of Hauger’s car to see if he can get past it, but as the corner comes close, he forecasts an accident.
He knew the car’s pace and kept a level head, backing out from any dangerous move.
As he got closer to the group’s top, the battles became much more intense. In this battle for 5th place, Liam Lawson went out wide to give Sargeant on the inside, and Logan took the space. Lawson shut the door so suddenly that he went wheel to wheel with Sargeant and went off track.
These two races show that the sheer pace and move set Sargeant flashed at the F2 level carries a lot of promise. He can work his way from the back of the field and stay out in front if he has to. Whether in the rain, on a drying track, or on a dry track, he can deliver results and get a lot out of a package.
He may not have the pace and natural speed of F2 prodigies like Leclerc and Russell, but he carries cunning overtakes and the willingness to be on the limit to get the most out of a car.
A team like Williams will need these kinds of drivers for their rebuild. Their packages are going to remain lackluster for the foreseeable future. Still, if they want to compete for points, drivers like Albon and Sargeant can deliver results in machinery that is not always up to snuff.
The adjustment to F1 is always a mystery coming from F2, and many factors could get in the way of Logan Sargeant. He may flame out, or he may end up being Williams savior, but one thing is for sure: the kid can go fast and get past people.
Only time will tell whether he is still on the grid or winning the Indy 500 in a few years.
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