American Logan Sargeant Loses His Williams F1 Ride to Carlos Sainz

There will not be an American on the 2025 Formula 1 grid after Williams confirmed it has signed Carlos Sainz to replace Logan Sargeant.

Sainz, who will be replaced at Ferrari by Lewis Hamilton, was the highest-profile free agent on the market, but saw prospective avenues at front-running teams close.

Sainz is believed to have had offers from Alpine, Sauber—which is transitioning into the Audi works team in 2026—and Williams, which has made sizeable off-track changes under James Vowles, and which will remain as a Mercedes customer team.

Sainz has now put pen to paper on a two-year deal at Williams, covering 2025 and 2026, with options for 2027.

It completes Williams’ driver lineup, with Alex Albon having signed a multi-year extension earlier this season.

“It is no secret that this year’s driver market has been exceptionally complex for various reasons and that it has taken me some time to announce my decision,” Sainz said.

“However, I am fully confident that Williams is the right place for me to continue my F1 journey and I am extremely proud of joining such a historic and successful team, where many of my childhood heroes drove in the past and made their mark on our sport.

“The ultimate goal of bringing Williams back to where it belongs, at the front of the grid, is a challenge that I embrace with excitement and positivity.

“I am convinced that this team has all the right ingredients to make history again and starting on January 1 I will give my absolute best to drive Williams forward alongside every single member of the team.”

Vowles emphasized that Sainz penning a multi-year deal is a “strong statement of intent” from both team and driver.

“Carlos has demonstrated time and again that he is one of the most talented drivers on the grid, with race-winning pedigree, and this underlines the upwards trajectory we are on,” Vowles said.

“Carlos brings not just experience and performance, but also a fierce drive to extract every millisecond out of the team and car; the fit is perfect.

“In Alex and Carlos we will have one of the most formidable driver lineups on the grid and with huge experience to guide us into the new regulations in 2026.”

Sargeant’s Journey to End After 2024

Sargeant owed his Formula 1 opportunity to Williams and there can be no sour grapes—he has not performed to the required standard.

Having joined Williams’ Academy in late 2021 an encouraging rookie Formula 2 season, allied with a paucity of options, convinced the team to accelerate his path into Formula 1 for 2023.

The Florida native's rookie season was understandably tricky and he was firmly overshadowed by team-mate Alex Albon, who single-handedly secured Williams seventh in the championship.

There were some mitigating circumstances.

Sargeant had to adapt to Formula 1, learn new routines, protocols, and circuits, while also frequently running one update spec behind Albon—albeit with some of that his own doing due to accidents.

Williams waited until postseason to confirm Sargeant for 2024 and it was clear that a step up was expected.

But the writing was on the wall as early as the third round of the year in Australia when Sargeant was stood down for the weekend in the wake of Williams being left with only one car after Albon’s accident in practice.

Sargeant nobly played the team game, and Williams was embarrassed by the situation, but it spoke volumes of the lack of faith Williams had in the young American.

By the time Formula 1 returned to Europe Williams was not so subtle in its courtship of rival drivers to join Albon, after confirmation of Albon’s long-term contract extension in early May.

Sargeant has yet to beat Albon in either qualifying or the races in 2024 and while, again, there have been some mitigating circumstances—with Albon the first to receive the weight-saving updates until they finally had the same spec in Austria last month—Williams is in possession of the raw data and saw its future elsewhere.

Sargeant has always been dignified and amenable off-track, remaining professional amid the low moments, and, still only 23 years old, warrants a fresh start in another category. He’ll always be able to say he had two years as a Formula 1 driver.

In its statement announcing Sainz Williams outlined that it will ‘give Logan every support as he looks to continue his racing career for 2025 and into the future.’

Reflection on Sauber’s State

Sauber had earmarked Sainz as its number one candidate to lead the team into its new era under the control of Audi, ahead of the marque’s entry as a power unit supplier in new regulations in 2026.

It has already signed current Haas driver Nico Hulkenberg but it had still pursued Sainz, but he was reluctant to pledge the likely prime years of his career to a nascent project.

Sauber has struggled for performance this season and is the only team yet to score a point.

A sign of the mountain facing the Sauber/Audi project is last week’s development that the marque has axed Andreas Seidl and Thomas Hoffmann, who had been laying the foundations for the transition, and brought in ex-Ferrari team boss Mattia Binotto in a revised position as the de facto boss.

There is uncertainty on how long it may take Audi, which has never before tackled Formula 1, to emerge as a competitive proposition.

Sainz was regarded as the cork in the bottle and now that he has signed for Williams the other pieces of the puzzle are expected to slot into place.

Where’s the Next American Coming From?

Sargeant’s presence ended an eight-year wait for an American on the starting grid, following Alexander Rossi’s brief five-event spell for backmarker Manor Marussia in 2015, while he was the first full-time representative in 15 years.

Formula 1 now has three American races, in Miami, Austin and Las Vegas, but the chances of any home driver being on the grid short- medium-term is highly unlikely.

Andretti Global has regularly emphasized that Colton Herta would be part of its organization but the team has not been granted the 2026 entry it desires—toward which it is still working—with Formula 1 unmoved by its attempts.

Formula 1 has left the door open for a future entry by Andretti, on the proviso that GM remains part of the equation, but that would not be until 2028 at the earliest.

Formula 2 racer Jak Crawford is linked with Aston Martin, and tested its 2022 Formula 1 car in Austria, but Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll are under contract for 2025 and beyond.

It could be another generation before there’s a successor to Sargeant in Formula 1.