Logan Sargeant will race for Williams in 2023 after gaining the superlicence points he needed to guarantee his spot in Formula 1.
The team had revealed their plans to promote the American last month. He was to replace Nicholas Latifi, who will leave the team after the final race of the year after three years in F1.
But Sargeant's promotion had been depended upon whether or not he could gain enough points in the final F2 race of the season to secure a high enough spot in the championship to earn his superlicence. And he did exactly that on Sunday morning, finishing in fourth place in the standings to comfortably secure his place in F1.
Good news for the American is a blow to Mick Schumacher, though, for whom the seat at Williams was a final hope of racing in 2023. After being let go by Haas, he would have been towards the top of the list of alternative options had the team been forced to come up with an alternative plan.
Sargeant was always well placed to earn his superlicence, though because it was riding on one final race weekend there was always a chance things could go wrong. But that wasn't to be the case, as he drove calmly to fifth place in the feature race to make it comfortable in the standings.
Finishing fourth overall gave him 30 points on its own, almost the entire of the 40 a driver needs to secure the special licence to race in F1. Sargeant already had 30 in his back pocket, meaning he has 60 in total and more than enough to guarantee his place at the pinnacle of motorsport in 2023.
Sargeant will become the first American driver to hold an F1 race seat since Scott Speed raced for Toro Rosso 15 years ago. He is to be the first man from his country to race in the sport at all since Alexander Rossi competed in a handful of Grands Prix for Marussia in 2015.
As for Schumacher, his next step may well be a reserve role with Mercedes. Team principal Toto Wolff made it clear he would like to see the young German join the manufacturer which was once represented by his legendary father.
"Mick is someone that has always been close to our heart, because of Michael, and the whole Schumacher family – Ralf was in the DTM for a long time with us, his son [David] races Mercedes in GTs," said Wolff. "[Mick] is an intelligent, well-mannered young man. He's been very successful in junior formulas, we believe that we can look after him if the situation were to happen, with someone that just fits the team."
