23 January 2023 , 20:36
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Williams did not originally plan to promote Logan Sargeant to a Formula 1 race seat this year, one of the team's top bosses has admitted.
The American will make his debut in Bahrain in March, racing alongside Alex Albon. He fills the seat vacated by Nicholas Latifi after Williams decided not to renew the Canadian's contract after three seasons in the sport.
But it was pretty well documented that Sargeant wasn't necessarily the top choice to replace Latifi. Williams had been working on a loan-style deal to field Oscar Piastri for a year, before the Aussie left Alpine for McLaren, before turning their attention to Nyck de Vries.
The Dutchman had impressed when filling in for Albon at the Italian Grand Prix, but naturally caught the attention of other teams too. In the end, he decided on AlphaTauri and Williams needed a plan C.
Sargeant was already on the books and having a great season in Formula 2 and, as an American with a wealthy family, was a strong option even just from the sponsorship and marketing perspective. But, as sporting director Sven Smeets has now admitted, the plan had been for him to spend at least another year building up experience in F2.
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"We had a two-year plan with Logan in F2," he told Motorsport.com. "I think that's how everybody starts. When the season started, very quickly and especially Silverstone and the races after that, we started to see the potential that we maybe didn't have to do two seasons with him in F2.
Sargeant replaces Nicholas Latifi who failed to make an impression in F1 (Getty Images)"We didn't say to him 'you need to win F2 or you need to be second', it was just his progression in F2, the raw speed he has shown in one lap, and himself maturing.
"It was also how he develops here in the sim sessions, doing his physical camps we have for them, doing the media training. All that was starting to go in a direction that, by summer time, we saw him as becoming one of our contenders."
Before being replaced as Williams team principal, Jost Capito told Mirror Sport that Albon's maturity shown in 2022 also made the team more comfortable to promote Sargeant. "He had the lead this year and he really grew in that role. He is very familiar with the team now, the team supports him and now is the right time to take a rookie on and give Logan a learning year in '23," said the German.