Logan Sargeant’s struggles continue into the sophomore year of his F1 career. After scoring just one point in the entirety of his rookie season last year, the American’s 2024 campaign in Bahrain also kickstarted in disappointment as he finished last. The 23-year-old was the only driver who race winner Max Verstappen lapped twice. Since Sargeant has struggled massively ever since he made the step up to F1, he is the driver who is at the most risk of losing his drive with Williams. That is interestingly also his biggest fear when asked about the same before the 2024 campaign began.
Sargeant said, “I think what scares me most is not living up to my full potential“. Although Sargeant’s disappointing performances haven’t been all his fault, he has yet failed to live up to expectations so far. Consequently, when things don’t go his way, like in Bahrain, it only adds to the pressure he is already under.
During the Bahrain GP on Saturday, Sargeant had an impressive start as he made his way up to 13th. However, due to an electronics issue, he had a massive lock-up that made him lose drive momentarily. That lock-up not only resulted in him moving to the back of the grid but also being lapped by the whole field.
After a disappointing outing, Sargeant explained the struggles he faced after the race. As quoted by Junaid, Sargeant said, “It was frustrating as we had the steering wheel electronics issue yesterday in qualifying and then it returned today, so the most important thing is that we need to understand the root cause of this and get it fixed going forward“.
Williams took a huge gamble by retaining Logan Sargeant
Logan Sargeant is undoubtedly one of the drivers who is facing the highest of pressures since Williams retained him despite him having had a disappointing rookie season. With the Grove-based outfit having retained him, 2024 also turned out to be a historical season, as this is the first time that no rookie has joined the grid.
Since there are impressive youngsters such as Felipe Drugovich and Frederik Vesti in the driver market, Sargeant will need to make sure that he makes his second chance count this season. While Alex Albon in the other Williams has found another level of form since the start of last season, Sargeant will at least need to make sure that he is as close as possible to the Thai driver.
In case if Sargeant continues to underperform Albon by a significant margin like he did in 2023, he will definitely be the driver at the highest risk of losing his seat. Last season, Albon finished an outstanding 13th in the championship and scored 27 points in comparison to Sargeant’s 1.
