With each passing race, a group of drivers towards the back of the Formula 1 grid look increasingly unlikely to retain their seats for 2025.
With so many young drivers fighting to prove that they deserve an opportunity, beating your teammate and your team’s expectations is now essential to prove you have what it takes.
Only Ferrari and McLaren have confirmed their line-ups for 2025 and speaking on the On Track GP Podcast, racing driver and pundit Richard Bradley has singled out one driver who could be in danger.
While the front of the grid is starting to take shape, Alex Albon is the only driver in the bottom five teams signed up for 2025.
The Thai driver hasn’t been able to replicate his heroics last season where he almost single-handedly guided Williams to 7 in the Constructors’ Championship.
However, it’s Albon’s teammate Logan Sargeant who might struggle to secure an F1 seat for 2025.
Richard Bradley believes the £15,000-a-week driver simply isn’t doing enough to justify his place on the grid.
He showed glimpses of his talent during the Chinese Grand Prix by managing to keep up with Albon in the Sprint Race.
But once again he was the last classified driver to cross the finish line and picked up a penalty to add insult to injury.
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Richard Bradley thinks Logan Sargeant will struggle to retain F1 seat in 2025
It says an awful lot about the expectations on Logan Sargeant that before the campaign had even started, team principal James Vowles admitted he needed to be the surprise of the season.
His rookie campaign was average at best as he struggled to get anywhere near his teammate and failed to beat Albon in a single qualifying session.
That record has continued into 2024 and he was at the back of the grid in both qualifying sessions in China.
While he only finished a few seconds behind Albon in the Sprint Race, the longer format Grand Prix highlighted the difference between the two drivers.
Sargeant is lucky that F1 teams towards the back of the grid are taking their time to decide who to award a seat to for 2025.
It gives him time to show he’s worthy of staying in the sport past this year, but there have not been many signs so far to suggest he deserves that chance.
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Who could drive for Williams alongside Alex Albon in 2025?
Previewing the Miami Grand Prix, Bradley commented: “It will be interesting to see how Logan’s [Sargeant] going to do because at the minute you can’t see any way he’s going to hold onto that seat.”
At the moment, there’s no indication that any driver is close to signing a contract that would see them partnered with Alex Albon next year.
One name that has recently been floated about is Mercedes junior driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli.
Antonelli is currently driving in Formula 2 but is so young that he wouldn’t be eligible to drive in F1 until his home race in Monza, although the idea has already been floated that he could be in Sargeant’s car by then.
It’s a partnership that Mercedes have utilised before when they blooded George Russell in Formula 1 with the team.
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Williams could also offer a seat to several of Sargeant’s current F1 rivals for 2025.
Esteban Ocon could end up leaving the struggling Alpine team for Williams next year.
The Frenchman has been the stronger of the two Alpine drivers this season although the team have been handing him upgrades before Pierre Gasly.
Williams also like Carlos Sainz and have spoken to his management, but that looks like a long shot at the moment. Until then, all Sargeant can do is try and prove that he’s worth handing one last chance to next year and try and take advantage of the first of his three home races in 2024…
The post ‘At the minute’: F1 pundit admits he can’t see ‘any way’ for £15k-a-week driver to hold onto his seat for 2025 appeared first on F1 Oversteer.