(Motorsports news) The American, who will soon begin his second season with Williams, switched from Formula Two to F1 prior to his first season with the Grove-based team last year. And although he thinks that some aspects of F2 prepared him well for the top tier, many of its features turned out to be difficult to get used to.
Now, a new car for 2024 will take the place of the Dallara-built F2 2018 chassis, bringing the support series closer to the current F1 ground effects cars. Regarding the move from Formula 2, he told that it had “definitely helped 100%.” Although I think the Formula Two series is fantastic and has some amazing drivers, I also believe that there is arguably a bit too much of a gap between the vehicles.
“F1 just has so many more intricate details, and performance is enhanced by so many more factors than just jumping in and driving like you do in F2.” According to Sargeant, one of the main distinctions between the series is the complexity of the cars, with F1 in particular having a lot more intricate control components that are essential to performance. In an F2 car, he claimed, “you can do so many things that you can’t do enough to from a driving aspect.” Performance is influenced by a lot more factors than just getting in a car and driving like an F2 racer. That seems to be the part you overlook.
In Formula One, there are numerous components that must come together before you can accelerate quickly, but in Formula Two, you simply hop in and go. And that’s definitely something F2 is missing. The automobiles aren’t nearly fast enough, in my opinion, after that. It wasn’t always that simple, though, as Sargeant managed to persuade his Williams managers to retain him for an additional season by the end of 2023.
His future was far from assured after a string of collisions, and he occasionally struggled to match teammate Alex Albon’s high level of performance. Looking back on the year, Sargeant acknowledged that early on, tying things together was the hardest part. “I believe the most difficult task is organizing it each weekend,” he remarked. “There are a tonne of variables and operational details to be perfected during each F1 weekend.
It’s just really difficult to put everything together flawlessly within the course of a weekend. And that, in my opinion, is the main issue. However, experience kind of brings that together on its own. “I believe that’s the thing I’m still working on getting control of, and it’s definitely what’s held me back at times.” Though not without its challenges, 2023 was not without its highlights. He became the first American to score a point at the US Grand Prix since Michael Andretti in 1993.
Although it was “nice” to be a part of Formula One history, Sargeant admits that carrying out his weekend execution was more important to him. “I want to have nice, clean weekends where I put everything together, whether I score a point or not,” he remarked. And that’s fantastic if it means we win points. It is what it is if that implies that we don’t. If only I knew that I had gotten everything out of it.
That’s truly all I’m searching for. The points are only extra incentives.
