Yahoo Autos American Logan Sargeant Dropped By Williams F1
Williams F1 has dropped Logan Sargeant, the lone American in Formula 1. The team has announced that he will be replaced by junior driver Franco Colapinto, who currently sits sixth in the 2024 Formula 2 championship.
Sargeant's time in F1 ends less than two years after Williams first announced a license-contingent plan to sign him into the series. His seat with the team was under question after a rocky rookie year, but he signed again in December and was retained over the Summer break. A major crash during a wet practice at Zandvoort on Saturday seems to have been the last straw, leading the lone American in F1 on the outside looking in ahead of the 2025 season.
Ironically, Williams may have hired the American because another American, Colton Herta, had his super license application rejected. That ended Herta's own license-contingent bid to join Red Bull's AlphaTauri team, and in return AlphaTauri hired expected Williams target Nyck de Vries. This opened a seat for Sargeant, a signed Williams development driver who was sitting fourth in the F2 championship at the time.
An incident-filled rookie year followed, but Sargeant scored points in one of his three home races. He extended for 2024, but his pace and consistency did not quickly improve. The writing was on the wall for Sargeant's eventual departure by the time teammate Alex Albon was given his chassis after a crash, and now the team has officially moved on. Sargeant's time with Williams ends with just one point scored.
In his place, Williams has brought up Franco Colapinto. Like Sargeant two years ago, Colapinto is a Williams-affiliated driver having a respectable first year in F2 at 21 years old. Also like Sargeant, he is nowhere near the championship lead currently held by Red Bull-affiliated driver Isack Hadjar. Colapinto was not exactly a major candidate for the team's open seat in 2025, and the early signing of Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz Jr. leaves the newly-promoted driver without a real pathway to an F1 seat next year.
Sargeant, meanwhile, has few options left on either the Formula 1 or IndyCar grids. In F1, the only open seats left for 2025 are at Sauber, Mercedes, and the Red Bull-affiliated Visa Cash App RB. An overflow of interested talent and expected contraction at Chip Ganassi Racing has led to a rush to grab seats in IndyCar even as the team adds a new two-car program from Prema, meaning that Sargeant would have to compete for rides in that category against drivers like Indianapolis 500 winner Alexander Rossi and 2023 F2 champion Theo Pourchaire. For now, his next step is an unknown.
Colapinto has practiced in an F1 car once this year, but it is far from the expected amount of seat time for a driver set to make his F1 debut at Monza on Sunday. Since the Italain Grand Prix no longer uses a sprint format, he will have three full practice sessions to acquaint himself with the car before making his debut.
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