Martin Brundle hopes F1 ‘doesn’t eat up’ Logan Sargeant before he can prove himself

Martin Brundle has put out his one big hope for American rookie Logan Sargeant and that’s simply that the “the world of Formula 1 doesn’t eat him up” before he gets the chance to prove himself.

Sargeant is one of three rookies lining up on the 2023 Formula 1 grid, the 22-year-old flying under the radar with most of the attention on McLaren’s Oscar Piastri.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing for the Williams driver as he steps up onto the big stage.

While his predecessor Nicholas Latifi was faced with pay driver comments throughout his brief Formula 1 career, there has been some comment along the way that Sargeant’s nationality helped open the F1 door for him.

Then Williams CEO Jost Capito denied this at the time, insisting Sargeant’s promotion from Williams junior to F1 driver was based solely on his on-track performances.

Former driver turned pundit Brundle believes the California has what it takes to succeed in F1, he showed that last season when he was chasing super licence points in the F2 season finale and kept his calm throughout the weekend.

“He’s a very interesting, capable driver that has demonstrated his ability and I think he will benefit from the large supportive team around him,” he toldGive Me Sport.

“I was very interested in the way he handled the final race weekend in Abu Dhabi [in F2 last season] with the pressure of having to achieve the super licence points he needed to make it through to Formula 1. He held it together but you could see the pressure weighing with Logan.

“I feel like he will demonstrate his talent mid-year. I think it will take him potentially a few races to settle down and then once he settled, the results will start to come.”

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Sargeant是f压力没有什么幻想了acing him as he lines up on the Bahrain grid this weekend.

“I feel like I’ve left no stone unturned and I’m in a great place heading into the first race,” he said.

“One thing that can really benefit me is the years I’ve done — I’ve had my ups and downs and mentally, that’s going to make me a lot tougher.

“Going into my first season of F1, that’s going to be a challenge and hopefully I can bring the mental toughness and be able to use that throughout the season.”

Brundle hopes that mental toughness pays off for the driver.

“What I really hope for him is that the world of Formula 1 doesn’t eat him up before he’s had the opportunity to settle as we’ve seen with other drivers,” he added.

“I think Logan is a very capable driver and I hope the audience at large and the F1 paddock don’t, if he has a couple of early wobbles with the pressure, go on a witch hunt for him.

“In my mind, he absolutely deserves to be sitting in the car and on the grid and I think he will do an extremely capable job for Williams this year.”