Logan Sargeant has confirmed that rumors linking Andrea Kimi Antonelli to his seat at Williams are not a distraction as talk of him being replaced by Mercedes' junior driver mounts.
The 23-year-old has come under increasing pressure over his performances with the Grove-based team since making his Formula 1 debut at the start of 2023.
Many pundits asserted towards the end of the year that he should not be retained for this season. But Williams stuck with the American and gave him a second season to prove himself.
That faith took a major blow at the Australian Grand Prix when team principal James Vowles elected to leave Sargent out for the weekend, with Alex Albon supplying his chassis after he sustained severe damage to his chassis in practice.
Since then, speculation has mounted that Sargent's days at Williams are numbered, with Antonelli increasingly linked to his seat.
Further complicating these proposals, there have been reports in recent days that an exception to the FIA's super license has been introduced to allow an F2 driver to race in F1 before they turn 18 – with the implication that, if granted, he would take over Sargent's driving FW46 in the middle of the road. season.
“I'm doing my job as best I can,” the Williams driver replied when asked. Racing News 365 How he was dealing with the pressure of constant rumors.
Sargent then denied that such chatter had become a distraction: “No, I wouldn't say that. I'm talking to James.” [Vowles] internally. I'm talking to my manager. “I'm relieved,” he said, before refusing to say whether he had been given any guarantees by the team. “This is all internal talk, so I won't say that.”
Speculation reached new heights over the weekend at the Miami Grand Prix, Sargent's flagship Formula 1 race, with many suggesting it could be his last in the series – if Antonelli is granted a super license exception in time for the Emilia Romagna grand prix at Imola.
However, this is not believed to be a workable timetable, and Fowles moved over the weekend to distance himself and the team from the rumours.
However, Vowles stressed that Sargent has clear goals to reach in closing the performance gap with teammate Alex Albon. The team principal was clear in his expectations, saying that the American driver needed to “earn his seat.”
Meanwhile, Sargent was determined to tune out the noise, choosing to focus on the positives of a difficult weekend. The 23-year-old highlighted recent improvements since sitting out in Melbourne.
“Jump in [for] “This weekend’s FP1 is the most comfortable I’ve felt all year, and I feel like I got there straight away,” he explained.
“And if you look at Australia, I feel like things are going relatively well on the front end.”
