Logan Sargeant Insists Nationality Didn't Help With F1 Entry - "I've Put In The Hard Work"

The rookie Williams' driver looks ahead to his first season.

Williams' newest driver Logan Sargeant claims to not be feeling any extra pressure ahead of his rookie season being the first American F1 driver on the grid since 2015. 

The team revealed at the 2022 Austin Grand Prix that they had offered Sargeant a permanent seat for 2023 so long as he was able to get enough points on his super licence, which he luckily was. 

This came after it was confirmed Nicholas Latifi would be leaving the team when at the end of 2022.

Alex Rossi was the last American driver to feature on the grid when he stepped in for Manor Marussia F1 team in 2015. However, the last American driver to win a driver's championship was Mario Andretti in 1978 when he was driving for Lotus.

The popularity of the sport has been rapidly increasing in the US since the release of Netflix's Drive to Survive, which has seen the introduction of the Miami and Las Vegas Grand Prix. Now, bringing an American driver to the grid should only help propel the sport even further in the States. 

Sargeant has spoken to Formula1.com ahead of his rookie season. He said:

“I feel like, at the end of the day, I’ve put in as much hard work as anyone else to reach this point. I just have to look at it as, ‘prepare the best I possibly can to be the best driver I can possibly be’ next year.

“Hopefully I can represent [the United States] well and make them proud. I don’t think it’s any extra pressure, to be honest. I have high expectations for myself as it is.”

The American driver continued to discuss the rise in popularity in the sport in the US, but doesn't think this was a huge factor in his F1 entry. Sargeant continued: 

“I’d like to think it’s just a happy coincidence. As I said, I’ve put in the hard work over the past however many years, making a commitment to move to Europe when I was young to make this dream a reality.

“I feel like I’ve had a very good junior formula career. I’m just looking forward to closing that chapter and moving on to the next.”