Logan Sargeant’s unusual Saturday practice outing at the Brazilian Grand Prix is part of Williams’s plan to protect its intended 2023 Formula 1 driver from a superlicence snag.
Sargeant is a gamble for Williams mainly because he doesn’t even have a superlicence yet, although he is on course to secure it. His FP1 outings in the United States, Mexico and Abu Dhabi were designed to help with that by securing bonus superlicence points.
But Sargeant missed out on one of those in Mexico as a late red flag cut his running short, so he didn’t fulfil the mileage criteria. Hence the anomaly of this weekend in Brazil, where Sargeant will run in Saturday morning’s FP2 session in the middle of the sprint weekend – just to help top up the total.
That is sensible, pragmatic and proactive from Williams, which is attempting to exert as much control on a fluid situation as it can. And a superlicence is likely – if Sargeant gets all his bonus points across the remaining FP1 sessions and a penalty-free end to the F2 season, he should only need to finish eighth in the championship. He’s third at the moment.
But what if it all goes wrong, and circumstances conspire against him in the F2 finale? Then Williams needs to turn to its back-up plan.
This has not been outlined too specifically, but it is basically ‘pick up a free agent’. Unfortunately for Nicholas Latifi fans, it almost certainly won’t be a reprieve for the Canadian, who is leaving Williams at the end of the year.
The only other vacancy on the 2023 grid is with Haas and that team is picking between Mick Schumacher and Nico Hulkenberg. Of the two, Schumacher seems most likely to be the one available. And Williams team principal Jost Capito is a fan, having talked positively about him in the past and refused to rule him out as a 2023 candidate.
Schumacher would seem a sensible fallback. He’s reasonably competitive in the midfield, still has scope to improve, and would be a decent back-up to Alex Albon.
Plus, he may thrive in the slightly more arm-around-the-shoulder atmosphere at Williams, as sometimes it’s felt like Schumacher, and certainly the team around him, have not taken too kindly to the blunt approach often adopted by Guenther Steiner at Haas.
Another free agent with a superlicence is Antonio Giovinazzi, although whether Williams would be particularly interested in the sporadically quick but unreliable Italian is unknown.
Williams could instead eye another F2 driver who actually does have a superlicence – not 2022 champion Felipe Drugovich, who has joined Aston Martin as a test and reserve driver – but Alpine protege Jack Doohan.
This would probably work in the way the failed Oscar Piastri deal was meant to: Doohan sent to Williams on loan for two years with a view to a future Alpine seat if he progresses well.
Doohan is an interesting driver. He’s only 19, has shown flashes of mega pace, although is still erratic. He has massively impressed Alpine with his off-track work ethic, though, and while he is set for another year of F2 in 2023 the team would be very interested in a loan deal if an F1 seat became available.
Ultimately the list of options isn’t too extensive or stunning for Williams, and that might speak to a bit of weakness in the F1 talent pool at the moment, but it’s reasonably solid. Especially when you consider that Williams is already on its third choice driver anyway.
That this element of jeopardy even exists is entirely in keeping with the unlikely circumstances that have conspired to make Sargeant’s intended F1 debut possible.
Wiliams has had a particularly turbulent time in the driver market this year. After deciding not to continue with Latifi, the team had eyes on Oscar Piastri and Nyck de Vries but lost both to other teams – McLaren and AlphaTauri respectively.
Sargeant was the ace up the sleeve, and a very good alternative to have in the mix. But he is a gamble given the open question of his superlicence eligibility.
Having already been through a crazy few months in the driver market, Williams will be praying that it can avoid the story taking another twist.
To the team’s credit, it is doing all it can to help with that.
