American driver Logan Sargeant will compete for Williams Racing alongside Alex Albon on the 2023 F1 grid, completing the British team’s driver line-up for next season, team boss Jost Capito confirmed in Austin on Saturday.
But this announcement comes with a catch: the young driver, who competes in Formula Two, has few Super License points. He is third in the standings with one round remaining on the F2 calendar, and will need to finish in the top five in the season finale to secure enough points. Sargeant is just nine points ahead of sixth place.
“We think he is ready to race and, on the condition that he has enough Super License points after Abu Dhabi, he will be our second driver next year,” Capito said, per The race.
The 21-year-old will become the first American driver to compete in the series since Alexander Rossi in 2015, if he collects enough points. Sargeant currently races in Formula Two for Carlin and is part of the Williams Driver Academy.
The announcement comes after he competed in the first practice session at the Circuit of the Americas on Friday, where he completed 23 laps with seemingly no issues. Although he finished 19th, the 21-year-old was 1.9 seconds behind Albon.
“I think the main goal today was to learn as much as possible,” Sargeant said Friday after practice. “And I felt like I realized a lot of things. Very different from what he honestly expected, but in a good way. There’s still a lot of potential to build on and improve on, but I think it was a good start and I’m happy with how it went.”
He added that his “main focus” at the moment is a standout finish in F2 to secure his Superlicence.
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