There’s been weeks of speculation, but Formula 1’s sole American driver isn’t going anywhere.
Williams’ [autotag]Logan Sargeant[/autotag] hasn’t had the smoothest rookie campaign, but the team is willing to give him another shot — it announced on Friday that it’s re-signing Sargeant for 2024. With his re-signing, F1 will have no driver change from the end of one season to the beginning of the next one for the first time in the racing series’ history.
Sargeant was promoted to the Williams after his campaign in Formula 2 in 2022 in which he finished fourth with two race wins and four total podiums. Upon his signing to Williams, Sargeant became the first American driver in Formula 1 since Alexander Rossi in 2015. After Sargeant scored points retroactively due to disqualifications up the order at the United States Grand Prix in 2023, he became the first American driver to score points in an F1 race since Michael Andretti in 1993 for McLaren.
BREAKING: Logan Sargeant will race for Williams in 2024!#F1 @LoganSargeant @WilliamsRacing pic.twitter.com/O8g6aDhKa0
— Formula 1 (@F1) December 1, 2023
Despite all that, though, there were serious questions about his seat due to his relatively poor year. Sargeant finished 21st on the years in a series with just 20 cars racing, coming in one step ahead of AlphaTauri driver Nyck De Vries — who was fired midseason by AlphaTauri. Sargeant placed higher than 15th just six times in 23 races while his teammate, Thai driver Alexander Albon, finished eight spots ahead of him in the Driver’s Championship in 13th and scored points in six more races.
Nonetheless, Williams remains confident in the American driver and has given him one more year to prove his worth.
Here is what team principal James Vowles said about the team’s continued partnership with Sargeant:
“I am pleased to continue our journey with Logan into the 2024 season. Logan has demonstrated immense skill whilst under the pressure of the world stage, making him a perfect fit for our team. We have great confidence in his abilities and believe that together we can achieve even greater success in the upcoming season.”