Logan Sargeant handed Williams future ultimatum as Kimi Antonelli links addressed
Kimi Antonelli has been linked with an immediate jump into F1 at the expense of Williams driver Logan Sargeant.
Williams team principal James Vowles has confirmed that Logan Sargeant is under pressure to improve his performances but denied that he has any plans to replace the American racer with 17-year-old Mercedes prodigy Kimi Antonelli.
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Following a crash-laden rookie campaign that produced just one point-scoring finish, Vowles opted to give Sargeant a second season to impress, but after five rounds of the 2024 campaign, the 23-year-old is showing no signs of improvement.
In fact, his P19 sprint qualifying finish in Miami on Friday was the first time that he out-qualified team-mate Alex Albon since stepping onto the F1 grid, and that drought was only broken when his colleague’s lap time was deleted for a track limits infringement.
With only one finish higher than P17 under his belt after five races, speculation surfaced suggesting that Sargeant may soon be booted from the Williams driver line-up with Antonelli - backed by Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff - in line to replace him.
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This speculation was fuelled further in Miami when reports revealed that Mercedes had applied for special dispensation from the FIA to grant Antonelli a super license, allowing him to drive in F1 before his 18th birthday in late August. This would only be necessary if there were plans to secure him a seat before the summer break.
Addressing the links between Williams and Antonelli, Vowles said: “I know nothing about what's going on with the Mercedes tests right now. We are looking, as everyone else is, for where we want to be on [our] driver line-up for next year. And we have our own young driver programme.
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“In the case of Kimi. I can't really adjudicate at the level he's at. In the case of him coming into the car this year, I've always said from the beginning, it's a meritocracy. Logan has to earn his seat and at the moment, he has some tough targets where he has to get much closer to Alex. But there is nothing on the radar at the moment for replacing him.”
Vowles also touched on Sargeant’s position, adding: “At the end of the year [2023], he came close to Alex, which I want him to do. But that progression had to continue.
“He had to be at the point where he's not sitting a tenth behind him, but rather challenging him and outqualifying him and outracing him fundamentally. We're still on that journey. But as I said all the way through, it is a meritocracy: earn your place now, and he's got more work to do."
