Sargeant: Visits to unfamiliar circuits not behind F1 rookie struggles

Williams driver Logan Sargeant doesn’t believe visiting a multitude of new circuits has contributed to the troubles he’s encountered in his rookie Formula 1 season.

Aside from a promising opening round performance in Bahrain, Sargeant has consistently struggled to match the efforts of team-mate Alex Albon in his debut year.

The American’s form has waned as Williams’ competitiveness has nosedived, signified by him being 0.5s adrift of the pack in qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix.

This weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve marks yet another new venue on the F1 calendar Sargeant has no prior experience at, but the 22-year-old has dismissed claims that it has been a factor halting his progress this year.

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“I don’t think it’s held me back, I think it’s all been very beneficial learning to be honest, no matter what the situation I try and get the best situation out of it and learn as much for the future,” he said.

“For sure excited to go into July and sort of string together some European races, but at the same time I’m excited for this weekend and want to get through it unscathed.”

Asked to give an assessment of his opening seven weekends in the top tier, Sargeant replied: “Highs and lows for sure. I think there’s been good points, there’s been bad points, looking at myself very honestly I have to be better, for sure, I’m never completely satisfied and there’s nothing to be satisfied about yet, so, yeah, plenty to work on and plenty to improve on. That has to be the goal.

“This weekend, going to a new track in tricky conditions, we both had a couple of crashes now so we need to keep it clean and hopefully both with the upgrade going forward we can start to be more consistently quicker.”

He added: “To be honest the last couple of races I’ve seen a lot of very promising signs, the way I need to go quicker is very clear to me. Which is the first step.”

Williams endured a wretched weekend last time out in Spain – but the team’s FW45 will be bolstered by the addition of upgrades this weekend, albeit only fitted to Albon’s car.

Albon, who admits to already testing the updates on the simulator, hopes that the new parts will put the British squad back in amongst a closely fought midfield battle.

“We’ve been pretty hard at work the last couple of weeks,” he expressed. “You know, nothing too big actually, balance-wise. It feels quite similar. It’s more just a general downforce difference. We’ve done a good job.

“I do think it’s going to put us more into the fight with the midfield. Something which we’ve been falling away a little bit from the last few races, so hopefully you can just get us back into the fighting area for points.”

Williams has not scored a point since Albon notched 10th place at the season-opener in Bahrain, leaving the Grove outfit rooted to the bottom of the Constructors’ Championship.

Sargeant, meanwhile is one of only two drivers – along with fellow rookie Nyck de Vries at AlphaTauri – still waiting to bag their first points finish of 2023.