Logan Sargeant earning his stripes as Williams live F1's American Dream

Logan Sargeant, USA — Photo: © LAT Images

Williams

Sargeant earning his stripes as Williams live F1's American Dream

The impressive rookie comes in for high praise from his new boss

Oli Lawrie

Thursday 23 March 2023 23:45

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Never has America needed an F1 star of its own as the 2023 calendar takes three races Stateside during the coming months.

With Las Vegas joining Miami and Austin on a packed schedule, the emergence of a local talent would only add lustre to the growing popularity of the sport in the United States.

Just as well then that rookie Logan Sargeant is performing 'better than expected', according to Williams Racing Team Principle James Vowles.

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Vowles waxed lyrical about the American youngster once again following last Sunday's Saudi Arabia Grand Prix, hailing the 22-year-old's performance in his first two races.

"From the outset in testing he was immediately quick," said Vowles in a post-race video.

"Going three wide through turn one is not an easy task against fierce competition."

"Delivering 12th with the car we had [in Bahrain] was an impressive feat," he added.

Despite Sargeant's inexperience, the Florida-born driver was only two tenths behind teammate Alex Albon in his first qualifying session in Bahrain.

But Vowles’ words of praise continued after last weekend's action at the Jeddah Corniche circuit.

"He built up across the weekend on a very difficult track, and every single session you saw him edge forward."

"His pace was there, and that’s the very difficult thing to achieve in such a short space of time."

While Sargeant has finished 12th in both of his races to date, and is yet to accrue a world championship point, Vowles sees it as only a matter of time before that changes.

"Now we need to turn all of these (performances) into championship points, but the potential is there."

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