Logan Sargeant was “proud” of his own performance at the 2023 United States GP even before knowing he would eventually score a point with P10 thanks to Lewis Hamilton’s and Charles Leclerc’s post-race disqualifications.
Photo Credits: Williams Racing
The American driver drove a feisty race in Austin to finish P12, but eventually got promoted into a points-paying position after the post-race disqualifications for Leclerc and Hamilton.
Speaking to selected directly after the race, before the sanctions were applied for the Ferrari and the Mercedes, Sargeant stated how he was “proud” of the turnaround he and his Williams team were able to made after a disappointing Friday qualifying and Sprint Saturday which saw them finish last on the road in all competitive sessions.
“I think [I’m] mostly satisfied. Proud of myself for the turnaround from [Saturday] – [that] wasn’t a good day, and then picked myself up, found what I needed to, and had really good pace today.
“I think it was a good step in the right direction, for sure. Just sort of shows that there’s progress being made,” said the American driver. “I didn’t have the greatest two qualifying [sessions] here, but I think in the previous rounds quali has been a good step forward.
“[On Sunday] I showed really good race pace, and a good 56 laps.”
After being made aware of the DSQ of Hamilton and Leclerc, Sargeant explained how he was relieved to score a point despite his “challenging weekend” and continued to praise the huge progress he made overnight – especially the changes within the cockpit like differential and torque settings, which are about the only changes that can be made due to the parc ferme restrictions, that are even stricter during Sprint weekends:
“It’s amazing to score my first point in F1 on home turf after the challenging weekend I’ve had. I’m so proud of this team and myself for the hard work and progress we’ve been making this season.
“We worked hard overnight to find a direction with the car that was going to be positive, and we found that. We couldn’t change a lot as the car was under Parc Fermé, but we worked on the systems side using the tools on my steering wheel to help move the car in the right direction.”
Whilst his race was mostly positive, the Williams driver admitted he lost some ground with a mistake on the opening lap after catching too much of the kerb in the first corner at the start, which caused his FW45 to go into anti-stall and lost him a few places:
“[I was] just a little bit unlucky into turn one, catching the sausage kerb and going into anti-stall, I’ve [lost] a few positions there. But nonetheless I’m proud of the race we had – little bits I could’ve done better, but great turnaround.
“That changed the race a little bit, but we fought back, and I gave it my all every lap.”
The American driver said he had to be mindful of many factors during his journey to his first F1 points finish, including track limits, which made his race “really intense”:
“I gave it everything. I was pretty gassed at the end, with every lap becoming more and more difficult – the pace was increasing, the tyres were [degrading], you’re cautious of track limits – and everything is becoming really intense, so I’m just happy to bring it home.
“We made steps in the right direction that we can build on and move forward as we head to Mexico,” he concluded.
