Williams driver Logan Sargeant has revealed getting on top of being more competitive in race trim is his main aim for the rest of the Formula 1 season.
Partnering Alex Albon in a much-improved Williams package, Sargeant has been impressive over a single lap in qualifying, leading new team boss James Vowles to admit he was perhaps wrong to ignore the American’s progress in the feeder categories whilst at Mercedes.
Sargeant was denied a place in Q2 on his debut in Bahrain due to setting an identical lap time second to Lando Norris and then was thwarted in Saudi Arabia by the deletion of a lap time that would have been good enough to advance beyond the first stage for breaching the pit lane entry line.
While he has seemingly had no trouble with getting up to speed over one lap, Sargeant has evidently struggled with maintaining that pace over a longer race distance, and he admits it’s one area he is looking to make gains in through the coming rounds.
“Yeah, I think Saudi was a really good step forward in terms of qualifying pace from Bahrain even though nothing came of it but I think that was super positive,” he said ahead of Australia.
“I feel honestly super comfortable in the car. I feel like I’ve got my feet under the table. But there’s still a lot to learn in the races so trying to get on top of that.
“I’ve always been very comfortable with my qualifying pace coming from the previous series. So just trying to get on top of the race runs.”
Sargeant will have to deal with two races this weekend as the sprint format makes its return in Baku: a 17-lap dash on Saturday will be proceeded by the 51-lap main event on Sunday.
Despite not yet getting off the mark for the season in points terms, Sargeant has expressed his enjoyment at every aspect of stepping up from Formula 2 to F1 this year.
“What haven’t I [enjoyed]? It’s hard to pick one; I’ve loved everything. And I think, honestly, just having the element of going against 19 of the best drivers in the world. And really challenging myself to step up and make something happen,” he expressed.
Along with fellow rookie Nyck de Vries, Sargeant is now one of only two drivers still yet to score a point this season following a chaotic end to the Australian Grand Prix.
The 23-year-old was extremely lucky to escape a stewards’ investigation and a grid drop for the next round in Azerbaijan after being wholly to blame for crashing into de Vries’ AlphaTauri during a late restart in Melbourne, taking them both out of the race.
Having never previously raced at the Albert Park Circuit, Sargeant had been off the pace all weekend and was knocked out in Q1 as Albon progressed into Q3 to eventually line up eighth.
However, the Thai driver threw away the chance for a decent points haul when he careered into the barrier on the exit of Turn 6 at high speed while running sixth.
The woes of a pointless weekend for the Grove team when the FW45 appeared to possess a promising pace were accentuated by its rivals profiting from the carnage to score points.
McLaren was finally able to register its first points of the year as Norris and home favourite Oscar Piastri came home inside the points sixth and eighth respectively.
Yuki Tsunoda also survived the mayhem to notch two points for AlphaTauri and move them above Williams in the Constructors’ table, relegation the British side to the bottom of the order.
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