Williams: Sargeant bid for F1 seat 'a great headache'

Williams boss Jost Capito says the emergence of its driver academy member Logan Sargeant as a contender for a seat with the team in Formula 1 would be "a great headache" to have.

Williams is currently considering an offer from Alpine to loan its highly rated junior Oscar Piastri to the British outfit for 2023 as a replacement for Nicholas Latifi.

But Sargeant's recent run of form with Carlin in the FIA Formula 2 Championship, with the American driver winning rounds at Silverstone and in Austria, could eventually elevate the 21-year-old to the rank of potential candidate for a race seat next season with Williams alongside incumbent Alex Albon.

Capito touched on the possibility of putting Sargeant on his team's short list for 2023, while a promotion to the big time would put an American driver back on the grid in F1 for the first time since Alexander Rossi in 2015.

"It would be a great headache, wouldn't it?," commented Capito. "I've had worse ones.

"Of course, we are impressed. You know, it's his first season in F2. We didn't put any pressure on him.

"So he has the time to develop, and he's really impressed us with how fast he has got to grips with the car, about the tyre management and getting results.

"How he got the pole [in France] was really impressive. He will be in an F1 car in the future, I'm absolutely convinced."

Regarding Sargeant's prospects for next year, Capito made clear that it's early days still for the young gun who tested for Williams in Abu Dhabi last December.

"For example, he needs the superlicence points," noted Capito. "And for that he has to finish in the top five in the championship. In the moment, it looks good.

"But you know, you can always get the other way pretty quickly. So it's quite tricky to take early decisions on something on a F2 driver as long as the season is not over.

"So that's part of the decision making, of course."

• Read also: Williams junior Sargeant says F1 'a massive step up'

This year, all Formula 1 teams must run a young driver in at least two Friday practice sessions at venues of their choice.

Williams handed Formula E reigning world champion Nyck de Vries an outing at Barcelona. And Capito suggested that assigning Sargeant to its second slot would make sense.

"I think that would be obvious," said the German. "We haven't announced yet.

"Our young driver academy is working very well. We had three good results recently. Logan won the last two races and he set the car on pole [in France], so I think he deserves to get into the car."

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