F1 News: An American Driver Will Be Racing In The 2023 Season
It was revealed earlier this year that American Formula 2 driver, Logan Sargeant, had been offered a seat on the Williams team on the proviso that he gets the required super licence points before the end of the Formula 2 season.
The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix brought the F1 season to a close this weekend, as well as the Formula 2 championship. Sargeant managed to get himself enough super licence points to move forward to Formula 1, so we are expecting the official announcement shortly.
Sargeant will be joining teammate Alex Albon who came 13th in the last race of the season.
Although Sargeant will be driving for Williams, he is likely to do some pre-season test runs in the Alpine. Alpine team principal, Otmar Szafnauer, has spoken to Autosport, explaining that Williams helped them a lot with Oscar Piastri so it would almost be as a favour. Szafnauer said:
“We wouldn't be adverse to putting him in one of our old cars and running him.
“They were helpful with us [over Piastri], and it will be a big help for Logan to run in an F1 car – a two-year-old car now, but still relatively close. And if that's what they decide to do, we'd be willing to look at it.”
When questioned if this is a normal approach for two teams to work together like this, Szafnauer said:
“At this point, hopefully, we won't be competing with them next year! There might come a time where we got to rethink that"
Sargeant will be replacing Canadian driver, Nicholas Latifi, who did not manage to show the right performance to have his contract extended with the Williams team. Latifi was not able to secure a seat with any other team for the next F1 season but has revealed that he is going to be making the move to IndyCar for 2023.