Logan Sargeant claims he’s “extremely” close to performing at the required level to retain his Formula 1 seat at Williams, amid an uncertain future.
The American, in his sophomore F1 season, continues to be outperformed by his more experienced team-mate Alex Albon.
Albon has out-qualified Sargeant on the six occasions they’ve shared the track and out of the three Grand Prix both drivers have finished, Albon has come out ahead of the American.
With the 2025 driver market in full swing and experienced Grand Prix winners such as Valtteri Bottas pictured in discussion with Williams Team Principal James Vowles at Imola, Sargeant’s future has come into question.
“Of course I want to stay [at Williams],” Sargeant told media in Monaco on Thursday.
“I believe I can get to the level I need to be at, so that’s what I’m trying to do.”
Asked how close he is to that level, Sargeant responded with, “Extremely.”
The key to Sargeant’s future will be in proving he can consistently match his team-mate and despite not having success thus far in 2024, Sargeant is adamant he has a shot at matching Albon at any given GP.
“I think I have a chance every weekend,” he said.
“I think I have a chance this weekend, but at the same time, it’s tough when some upgrades are coming for him. But at the end of the day, the team knows the cross-car differences, so even if you don’t see it on track, it’s still able to be calculated.”
After an inconsistent rookie campaign saw Sargeant score one point to Albon’s 27 – the goal in year two is to build on his learnings from year one, but there have been a number of factors interfering with his progress.
Sargeant was pulled out of the Australian GP after Albon crashed during opening practice.
Due to no spare chassis at Williams’ disposal, the team elected to place the more experienced driver in Sargeant’s car for the remainder of the weekend.
Kevin Magnussen shunting him out of the Miami Grand Prix has also hurt Sargeant’s progression. Still, he believes that amid an overweight and underperforming car, personal progress has been made.
“I think there’s been good moments,” he said. “I think I’ve seen a huge step forward.
“It’s just unfortunate we’re in a tough position with the car at the moment, but I think it’s starting to move back in the right direction. We’ll see how we can do this weekend.”
Setbacks aside, Sargeant’s average finishing position of 17th will need a boost this weekend in order to close the gap to Albon’s average of 13th, or else he could find himself surplus to requirements.
In the meantime, Sargeant has the support of Vowles.
“I think he’s there to support me, of course,” he said.
“I think he has been for the last year and a half now. I think we’re all trying to move the team forward as a whole. We clearly still have some ways to go and anything we can do better as a team ultimately helps me perform better as a driver.”
