Logan Sargeant secures Super Licence and F1 seat

Pending final race and championship classification, Logan Sargeant will get a Super Licence and take his F1 drive with Williams next season.

After scoring points in the F2 Sprint Race in Abu Dhabi, it was always likely that the Carlin and Williams Academy driver would earn his Super Licence.

And with a fifth-place finish in Sunday’s Feature Race, Sargeant ensured that he will end the season fourth in the standings and thus earn the requisite Super Licence points.

An F1 seat in the balance

It wasn’t all plain sailing for the young American. He spent much of the season finale stuck behind Roy Nissany, complaining over the radio to his team that they had pitted him too late.

Plenty of his rivals had also put themselves in promising positions.

Ayumu Iwasa was leading the race. Liam Lawson was in position to compliment his Sprint Race victory with another podium. And Jack Doohan – on an alternate strategy – was about to start a late charge. So Sargeant couldn’t afford to take any unnecessary risks.

Any worries were eased, though, when Doohan’s soft tyre departed his car just after his pit stop. The mistake ended the Australian’s race and guaranteed Sargeant the points he needed.

With the pressure off, he finally made the move on Nissany and was then promoted to P5 by Théo Pourchaire’s late retirement.

The result saw Sargeant slip to fourth in the final championship standings, one point behind teammate Lawson. That won’t be of great concern, though, as he heads to a seat at motorsport’s top table next year.

He also claimed the Anthoine Hubert Award for 2022’s best rookie.

LOGAN SARGEANT IS THE ROOKIE OF THE YEAR ✨

Two wins, four podiums and an an extraordinary season for the American youngster 👊

Logan, we can't wait to watch you racing for @WilliamsRacing in @F1 next year, we're so very proud 👏🥹#AbuDhabiGP #F2 @LoganSargeant pic.twitter.com/8O1S3ah0w0

— Formula 2 (@Formula2) November 20, 2022

The next Williams rookie

Sargeant will become the latest in a series of rookies at the Williams team.

The man he is replacing, Nicholas Latifi, was the most recent at the start of the 2020 season (not including Jack Aitken’s one-off appearance in Sakhir that year).

The year before, a certain George Russell had also made his bow with the Grove-based outfit, with Russia’s Sergey Sirotkin doing so in 2018.

Lance Stroll and Valtteri Bottas also did so in the last decade, meaning Sargeant will be joining a fairly impressive list.

He does not appear to be one to be overawed, however, and is confident in his ability. After the race he said, “I know we didn’t always capitalise but, as we just showed, we’re damn quick”.

Featured Image Credit: Sky Sports