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One of the more intriguing 2025 driver line-ups on the Formula One grid is Williams’ upcoming Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz duo. Just before the summer break, the Grove-based team announced the signing of the Spaniard, completing a recruitment effort that started in 2023.
Team boss James Vowles went further than intriguing, though, on Friday during the Dutch GP weekend. “I think I have the best or combination of the best drivers on the grid,” he said, citing how “There’s no politics between them. They’re both incredibly fierce competitors, but they develop the team.”
But this combination, however potent, leaves someone on the sidelines: Logan Sargeant.
The American driver must determine what the next chapter of his racing career looks like, and only three seats are available on next year’s F1 grid: Mercedes, RB and Sauber. Before the summer break, during the Belgian GP weekend, Sargeant said he was “looking inside and outside F1” for opportunities.
Could he head to a different series, such as returning to the United States and competing in IndyCar with Prema Racing, a team he has competed for during his junior career? Sargeant was asked during Thursday’s press conference ahead of the Dutch GP whether he’d consider staying with Williams in a reserve driver role. “Depends,” he said after a lengthy pause. He did not elaborate further.
Sargeant said he wasn’t necessarily surprised when the announcement was made before the summer shutdown. After all, Sargeant said, “it was quite public that they were trying quite hard to get him.” But he expressed that, “I think in the end, nothing changes. I have 10 more races to go out, drive as well as I can for the people who are working hard for me, my mechanics, my engineers, and hopefully I can make them proud.”
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Sargeant’s F1 career has been marked with heavy criticism as he never consistently matched Albon’s performance despite flashes of competitiveness. All but one Williams point this year and last have been scored by Albon, aside from the single point Sargeant secured at the 2023 U.S. Grand Prix when Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc were disqualified. He’s the first American to score points in an F1 grand prix since Michael Andretti at the 1993 Italian Grand Prix.
“One of the strengths that’s underrated in his regard is he has a huge mental resilience,” Vowles said Friday. “He takes a punishment in the media, in the world, really, almost weekend on weekend. But when it comes the following weekend, he’s cleared his mind of that. And he’s here just to perform fundamentally. And he builds up to the weekend in the way it needs to be.”
Though he replaced Sargeant for next season, Vowles does feel the 23-year-old was progressing. He said, “If you look across the last 18 months, you can clearly see that from where he was to where he is now in terms of number of mistakes, proximity to Alex, where he’s qualifying and where he achieves, how many seconds behind he’s finishing now. It is all on the right journey.”
What used to be a weakness of Sargeant’s used to be how he built up to the weekend, which Vowles feels he’s become “very good at doing now.” It boils down to finding the limit; however, the approach has changed from top-down to a bottom-up perspective. Vowles said, “Because top down, when you make one mistake, you lose a session and you start to put yourself at risk.”
It’s become evident over time how Sargeant has matured, finding ways to handle the pressures of F1 better. He changed his training regimen over the winter, and Vowles said, “He’s also using a lot more of the tools that are available to him both within the car and outside of the car within the engineering systems that we have, et cetera.”
Where a driver finishes doesn’t necessarily show how they are progressing. The grid is incredibly competitive this year, and the margins are much tighter. Sargeant has always been praised for his raw speed, and even with criticism arising and speculation about whether a mid-season driver change would happen, he has been getting closer to Albon, particularly on one-lap pace.
“We have to remember that we have the top 20 drivers in the world fundamentally competing on a world stage. And he’s ending up something akin to a few tenths off. And that’s not a large amount,” Vowles said. “That still puts you in good stead for the remainder of the world. I’m impressed with, as I said, how, when things are difficult, he can reset himself and bring it back onto a world stage.”
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Top photo: Clive Rose/Getty Images
