Midway through the 2023 season, we saw a change in the Formula 1 driver line-up. AlphaTauri had seen enough from Nyck de Vries, and they ripped up his contract.
It was De Vries’ first full year in F1 but the Red Bull junior team weren’t satisfied with how he was performing relative to Yuki Tsunoda. They gave him until the British Grand Prix in July, and then pulled the plug.
That handed a lifeline to Daniel Ricciardo, the former Red Bull driver who had lost his McLaren drive at the end of the previous season. Christian Horner was prepared to afford him a second chance.
But in the early rounds of this season, there were fears that history may repeat itself. Tsunoda was dominating Ricciardo in much the same fashion as he did De Vries, raising doubts over the Australian’s future.
There was even talk that the team had given him an ultimatum – improve by Miami, or face the same fate as De Vries. Ricciardo delivered a timely improvement in China following a chassis change, and then starred in Florida.
Rather poetically, the eight-time winner produced his best performance of the season at what reports suggested could have been his last race. He scored an excellent fourth place in the Saturday sprint race, bringing home five points for the team.
Liam Lawson continues to wait in the wings, having been all but promised a seat. But it may be another team who prematurely pull the plug this time around.
Logan Sargeant told he can’t feel aggrieved if Kimi Antonelli takes his seat
Over the Miami GP weekend, it emerged that Williams had requested special dispensation to field Mercedes junior Kimi Antonelli before his 18th birthday. This could spell the end of Logan Sargeant’s F1 career.
FIA superlicence rules wouldn’t allow Antonelli to compete until September’s Italian GP at the earliest. But Williams are hoping to get him in the car earlier.
Speaking on The Race F1 podcast, journalist Glenn Freeman said he no longer had ‘sympathy’ for Sargeant. If he does end up losing his drive, then he can’t have too many complaints.
“I can certainly see a scenario where, once he’s 18, if there’s a desire from both sides and they can agree to it, then I think Sargeant isn’t making a strong enough case at the moment,” he said. “He couldn’t feel that hard done by if he lost his seat mid-season.
“I had some sympathy for him. I felt Williams were maybe forced into taking him a bit sooner than they would have liked.
“His development perhaps hadn’t reached a point where he was definitely ready to make the step up. But nobody is in total control of their own destiny in those situations.
“And when you get that opportunity, you’ve got to do something with it. You can’t just keeping pointing back to the fact of ‘ideally, I could have done with an extra year of F2’.
“That’s certainly what the great drivers do, and it’s what a lot of the really good drivers do as well. He’s had enough time now that there should be a much clearer sign of progress, and it just doesn’t appear to be there.”
What has Logan Sargeant said about his Williams future?
Sargeant says he remains focused on doing the ‘best job as he can’ as speculation rages in the background. While he has held talks with senior figures at Williams, he wouldn’t disclose the details.
The 23-year-old knew coming into the season that he had to raise his game. Team boss James Vowles warned him that he needed to be the biggest ‘surprise’ of the year.
He notched only one point during his rookie campaign, while Alex Albon bagged 27. Neither Williams driver has scored so far this year, but the problem is that the Thai driver continues to dominate the intra-team battle.
It took until sprint qualifying in Miami for Sargeant to prevail in any direct head-to-head. Albon was faster before he saw his time deleted for track limits.
Williams have denied that there’s a possibility of Antonelli taking over at the next race in Imola. That gives Sargeant at least one more race to fight for his future, and he surely knows it’s last chance saloon.
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