Pundit sees ‘nothing to give him hope’ as F1 2023 struggler talks of progress

While Le Mans class winner Richard Bradley does back Logan Sargeant’s self-assessment that he is improving, he is yet to be given “hope” that the American rookie has what it takes to stay in Formula 1.

There was a great deal of interest surrounding Sargeant as he joined the grid with Williams, meaning Formula 1 had its first driver to hail from the United States, a vital market of growth for the series, since Alexander Rossi in 2015.

So far though Sargeant has been struggling to make his mark with the Grove outfit alongside team-mate Alex Albon.

Richard Bradley fears for Logan Sargeant

The Florida native is yet to get the better of Albon in qualifying, while in race trim it is also an alarming story, with Sargeant yet to score a point while Albon has collected 11.

Sargeant recently admitted that his season has been astory of “ups and downs” so far, but believes he is making progress towards the level he wants to reach.

Bradley, who claimed an LMP2 class win at Le Mans in 2015, does agree with that assessment, but is not yet convinced it will be enough, with Mercedes reserve Mick Schumacher heavily linked to Sargeant’s seat.

“There’s nothing that I’ve seen to give any hope yet,” said Bradley of Sargeant on the On Track GP podcast.

“But it’s a steep learning curve, and he is improving, so we’ll see if that continues.”

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Bradley was keen to stress though that Sargeant is in Formula 1 on merit, hailing him as a “phenomenal talent”, who on the karting scene was a prolific winner, also claiming two victories in Formula 2 last season on his way to a P4 finish in the standings.

To that point, Bradley also highlighted the impressive form of Albon, which has seen him linked with the likes of Red Bull and Ferrari, as another major factor working against Sargeant.

“You go back and look at his junior career, Logan is a phenomenal talent, there’s no question,” Bradley continued.

“And we make jokes about all sorts of drivers in Formula 1, okay, there were some very questionable ones in the past, but this current grid have all won something at a certain level and the level is just that high.

“So yeah, he’s finding it tough, but I think that leads on to Alex because I think Alex is just doing a phenomenal job at the moment.

“You look at some of those amazing drives, Canada is obviously the one that springs to mind, and he’s outqualifying Logan all the time, his racing has been great.”

10 rounds remain of the F1 2023 campaign for Sargeant to prove himself and earn a second campaign in Williams colours.

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