Logan Sargeant knows he was “fortunate” to end America’s 30-year wait for its first points by a driver in F1, which is why he remains eager to repeat the feat on his terms.
Following what has been a difficult rookie campaign at times for Sargeant with Williams, he scored his first point of the season after being classified 10th in his home United States Grand Prix at Austin’s Circuit of the Americas.
Sargeant had taken the chequered flag in 12th but four hours later was promoted two places following the disqualifications of runner-up Lewis Hamilton and sixth-placed Charles Leclerc after Mercedes and Ferrari respectively were found to have breached the technical regulations for excessive wear of the rear skid pads.
Team-mate Alex Albon was additionally promoted from 11th to ninth.
The 21-year-old American was already flying on his way home to Florida when he received a call from team principal James Vowles confirming the news that he had been promoted, in turn breaking his points duck.
Not since Mario Andretti in the 1982 Italian Grand Prix with Ferrari – in what proved to be the 1978 champion’s penultimate race in F1 – had an American scored a points finish.
“To be honest, it was more just a cherry on top to a very good Sunday,” said Sargeant, speaking for the first time since his point score was confirmed.
“I was already very happy with the race. I felt like I had performed very well, and just for me to get my first point, and the team to get three at this point of the championship, was a nice little bonus to walk away with.
“Obviously, it was a bit fortunate but at the end of the day, rules are rules. For myself, I still want to do it straight up. I’m still at the point where I want to do it crossing the line in the top 10, so that’s the goal.”
Sargeant has four more races to fulfill that objective, starting with this weekend’s Mexico City Grand Prix, but appreciates the odds are long, notably as Williams has stopped developing its car this season.
“The biggest difficulty is that people are bringing upgrades, and it’s becoming more and more difficult to be able to do that (score points),” added Sargeant, whose future will not be decided until the end of the year.
“At the end of the day, as long as I keep having strong performances, like I did on Sunday, that’s all I can really do, and if it happens, it happens, and if it doesn’t, it doesn’t.
“As I said, it was still a very nice bonus, and I’m sure everyone was very happy to at least get that out of the way and be able to move forward from that.
“F1 is very much a momentum sport so I will try and use that to get going and keep progressing forward.”
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