The driver market for the 2024 Formula 1 season is in full swing. After Oliver Bearman was confirmed at Haas for 2025, only six cockpits are (formally) still open. This includes the second seat at Williams alongside Alexander Albon, who committed to Williams in mid-May with a contract extension. Publicly, Williams makes no secret of the fact that ideally Carlos Sainz would be Albon’s teammate next year.
This would also mean that Logan Sargeant’s time with the traditional team from Grove, Great Britain, would end. After a difficult rookie season and a rarely convincing second Formula 1 season for the American, an exit from Williams during the 2024 season also seems possible.
“We are constantly evaluating this,” confirmed Williams team boss James Vowles on Friday in Silverstone. “What we said to Logan is: ‘It’s a meritocracy.’ You have to constantly make sure that you earn your place in the sport.” But Vowles added, at least slightly defusing the situation: “That’s the same message he’s had for 18 months.”
Vowles also made it clear where his priorities lie: building a more competitive car. “It’s not a driver problem that we’re suffering from today. We’ve simply been beaten in development and we need to make sure we speed up that process,” said the former Mercedes chief strategist.
Mercedes junior Andrea Kimi Antonelli has been repeatedly mentioned as a replacement candidate should Williams remove Sargeant from the cockpit during the current season – and not just since the FIA made adjustments to the regulations for obtaining the super license.
Antonelli is considered a candidate for Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes seat, which will become vacant next year, and could recommend himself for this step at Williams. But Antonelli’s Formula 2 season is far from running smoothly. After a promising start, the 17-year-old failed to score any points in the last two race weekends in Barcelona and Spielberg, is still waiting for his first podium finish and is ninth in the championship. Antonelli is 69 points behind championship leader Paul Aron – who was also a Mercedes junior until the end of last year and, like Antonelli, a rookie.
Antonelli’s Prema team-mate Oliver Bearman proved that a difficult Formula 2 season does not necessarily have to be an obstacle on the way to the premier class. The Brit is currently going through an even more difficult season than Antonelli and is only 14th in the championship. Unlike Antonelli, however, Bearman has already had a convincing rookie season and has competed in a Grand Prix.
But Williams also currently has Formula 2 talent in its own junior squad. Franco Colapinto and Zak O’Sullivan, like Antonelli, are currently completing their rookie season in the junior series. Colapinto is the third-best rookie in fifth place in the championship and has already won the sprint race in Imola and recently achieved two second places in the main race in Barcelona and Spielberg. In addition, Colapinto took part in a Formula 1 session on a Grand Prix weekend for the first time as a replacement for Sargeant in the first free practice session in Silverstone.
According to Vowles, this was not a test run for a possible promotion. “It was simply a reward for good development and we have to do two FP1 sessions (with rookies; ed.) in one season,” said the 45-year-old. Williams did promote Sargeant, a rookie from its own junior squad, in 2023 after just one Formula 2 season, but this decision was made by Vowles’ predecessor Jost Capito.
“You can really burn a driver if you put them in a car too early,” says Vowles. “And actually in modern Formula 1 you see rookies faltering as a result of things. So it’s not just a case of ‘Excellent, you did pretty well in Formula 2, you got a podium.'”
Instead, Vowles sees it as the task of Williams’ junior program to give its own young drivers a certain amount of testing time in older Formula 1 cars. “So that we can ensure that when we select them in the future, they are effectively in the strongest position they can be. And we haven’t provided that to Franco at this point.”
Another basis for deciding whether Sargeant might leave early or whether the 23-year-old will stay longer could be the upcoming weekend in Great Britain. This will begin today with training Friday. You can find all the news about the first sessions of the weekend here in the live ticker: