Logan Sargeant admitted he did not push as hard as he could have done during his free practice outings with the Williams Racing team at the end of the 2022 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season to ensure he acquired the Superlicence points needed to gain a full-time drive for 2023.
Sargeant will become the first American Formula 1 driver since Alexander Rossi in 2015 to race in Formula 1 next season when he replaces Nicholas Latifi at Williams.
He participated in his first free practice session with the team in his home event at the Circuit of the Americas, and he followed that up with additional sessions in Mexico City, São Paulo and Abu Dhabi.
His performances in FIA Formula 2 ultimately proved enough for him to get enough points to earn himself a Superlicence, but he did not want to risk too much during his practice outings to potentially put his chance of a Formula 1 seat at risk.
“I think the FP1s gave me a taste,” Sargeant is quoted as saying by Racer.com. “I don’t think they allowed me to fully get comfortable in the car — I never really completely pushed as I needed the extra SL points just in case, but it obviously gave me a taste of the speed, brakes, downforce.
“But (the test) was the first chance I really started to use all of it.”
Sargeant knows there is a lot of adaptations he will need to do to adjust to life as a fully-fledged Formula 1 driver, with the Formula 2 machinery a lot different to what he will race in next season.
“There’s certain things you can do with the way you sit, and the positioning you are in the car, and that’s all trial and error,” Sargeant said.
“But I come away knowing there’s a few things that I would want different from my position this year, but physically the difference between the F1 and F2 cars you need to be trained quite differently and that’s something I’ll take into the off-season to make sure we shift that to suit the F1 car.
“I just feel like in the F2 car, a lot of it is to do with upper body strength, not having the power steering, whereas (F1) is very much neck- and cardio-based. That’s the biggest differences.
The twenty-one-year-old is also keen to remain race sharp and keep his brain active during the off season, and he will be looking to drive some karts to do just that.
“I think there’s positives to be found sitting in any seat,” Sargeant added. “This winter I’m even going to jump in a KZ kart to keep my brain active.
“I feel like any sort of driving is a positive and I feel like there’s plenty to be gained by getting in anything.”
