Logan Sargeant has revealed he was on a plane heading back to his home state of Florida when he received the news that the disqualifications for Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc meant he scored his first point in Formula One.
Photo credit: Williams Racing
It’s the first time since Michael Andretti at the 1993 Italian Grand Prix that a driver from the United States bagged a point in a Formula 1 race.
“I was halfway through my trip from Austin to Florida, going home to see the family for a couple of days.
“James [Vowles] called me. I sort of already had a sense as someone had texted me earlier saying they’d had a hearing about it or whatever, but middle of the sky, on my way home.”
Sargeant had a really strong race on Sunday, finishing ahead of Hülkenberg, Bottas, Zhou, Magnussen and Ricciardo on merit to be P12 on the road. He was only 1.2s adrift of teammate Alex Albon when you factor in the Thai’s 5-second penalty.
The Floridian admitted post-race he was proud of himself for his performance, and he emphasised once again on Thursday just how pleased he was with it, as well as the feeling of getting off the mark.
“I think to be honest it was more just cherry on top to a really good Sunday, so I was already very happy with the race we’d just had. I felt I’d performed very well, and for me to get my first point, and for the team to get three at this point of the championship was obviously a nice little bonus to walk away from a good Sunday.
“Obviously everyone’s excited, happy, I’m still at the point where I want to do it crossing the line in the top 10, but still it was a very nice bonus to what was already a really good Sunday.
“I’m sure everyone was happy to get that out of the way and move forward from that, it’s very much a momentum sport, so to try and use that to go on and keep progressing forward.”
Qualifying for both the Grand Prix itself and the sprint had not been great for Sargeant as he was 0.5s and 0.9s off Albon respectively. As the Thai made SSQ3, Sargeant was P20.
The 22-year-old is looking to get back to his best in qualifying as well as stringing strong Sundays together.
“If I can get back to what I was doing from a one-lap pace before, make sure I do a good job there, be as close as I can then try to have another good Sunday, that’s really all I need to do.
“I was quite happy with how Friday went at COTA — bar the fact I didn’t get a clean lap together in qualifying — but the fact I was able to find the pace at a sprint weekend at a track I didn’t know well was nice.
Sargeant explained how he was more vocal on the radio about wanting to change tyres at the moment where he felt it was getting too sketchy on the hards in the middle stint.
He pointed to his crash in Singapore as learning to speak up and take the initiative in regards to strategy.
“I think as well there were points in the race where — I made a mistake in Singapore when the tyres were degrading, and it got to a point in Austin where through the second stint the tyres were going and I could feel a sense that I was at risk and was quite vocal to change.
“I think in the past I wouldn’t have been — I would have just sort of let it catch me out, whereas I knew we needed to get to the last stint, and it’s little things like that that can help you move forward and not make mistakes.
“For sure (experience is beneficial). Just knowing how difficult the car can become to drive when the tyres are going off just gave me a sense of, ‘they want me to keep going but now is the time to stop’ — that’s from previous errors.
“Not overstepping and making a mistake, it’s all moving in the right direction in that sense.”
