A former teammate has emerged as a fresh threat that could steal Oscar Piastri‘s expected Williams F1 drive for 2023.
American Logan Sargeant signed with the Williams driver academy ahead of the 2022 season, and currently sits second in the F2 standings – the same championship Piastri won last year. Sargeant won the feature races at Silverstone and Austria, and started the last feature race at Paul Ricard from pole before retiring from the race with a mechanical drama in the pitstop.
While you can mount a strong case Piastri is the better driver, his role as an Alpine reserve driver would mean he would only be a short-term option at Williams for a maximum of two seasons on loan before Alpine recall him as the likely replacement for a retiring Fernando Alonso.
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As a member of the Williams academy, Sargeant would be considered a long-term prospect.
The other factor that swings heavily in favour of Sargent is his passport. While the American doesn’t himself bring any sponsorship, having an American driver would give the struggling Williams side an attractive marketing tool into the US.
F1’s owners Liberty Media have invested heavily in the US market. It introduced a second US race at Miami this year, and will debut a third in Las Vegas for 2023.
There are currently no Americans on the F1 grid, which does however feature two Canadians – Lance Stroll at Aston Martin and Williams incumbent Nicholas Latifi.
Williams is expected to re-sign Alex Albon for 2023, which leaves only Latifi’s seat in dispute.
Piastri and Sargeant were teammates in F3 at Prema in the 2020. They both picked up two wins and six podiums, while Sargeant also had three pole positions.
But Piastri won the championship and Sargeant finished third.
Williams team principal Jost Capito said he’d certainly had worse headaches to deal with running race teams.
“Of course we are impressed (with Sargeant) – it’s his first season in F2 and we didn’t put any pressure on him so he has the time to develop,” Capito told The Race.
“And he’s really impressed us how quick he got to grips with the car, the tyre management and his results.
“How he got the pole (at Paul Ricard) was really impressive and he will be in a Formula 1 car in the future, I’m absolutely convinced.”
Capito confirmed both Piastri and Sargeant are in the discussions for their race seat.
“That’s the options we are thinking about as well. We will finally go for what we believe is the best for the team. But it’s too early to get into details, because we’re not there yet.”
The F1 paddock had been expecting Williams to announce Piastri at the British Grand Prix earlier this month, but a week later in Austria, rumours suggested the Piastri camp had held off signing the contract to hold discussions with McLaren.
Alpine insists Piastri will be in a race seat in 2023.
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