'I started karting for fun, not with serious goals'

F1 News

Sargeant talks about his road to Formula One
26 June 2023 at 08:14
Last update 26 June 2023 at 08:50
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  • Cas van de Kleut

Logan Sargeant, like Nyck de Vries and Oscar Piastri, is in his first season in Formula 1. Last year, he finished fourth in the Formula 2 championship, but he was the only Formula 2 driver to make the big move to Formula 1. Speaking to Givemesport.com, Sargeant discusses how he got into Formula 1 as an American.

"I think at the time I was five or six years old when we started karting, just with my dad and my brother, and it was really just more something to do on the weekends. I don't think we were ever crazy serious at the start, where, you know, we were thinking about what we're going eventually do. So it was really just something to go and have fun with," Sargeant recounted.

Fight between Hamilton and Alonso

In the United States, watching Formula 1 is not a natural thing to do. In recent years, more and more attention is coming to the king class of motorsport in the US, yet NASCAR and IndyCar remain the biggest. Sargeant confirms this: "Originally I probably watched NASCAR the most. I remember Jeff Gordon was definitely one [to watch] for me. In terms of F1, I just remember when I started watching, it was sort of that battle between Lewis [Hamilton] and [Fernando] Alonso so that was sort of the first year I watched [F1] though I wouldn't say any of them were like an idol as such."

Choosing F1 road

At some point, it became apparent that Sargeant had a talent for the sport himself. At 12, the American moved to Europe: "That sort of cemented the fact that we're going to go down the European path and try to make it to F1 and yeah, a lot of work went into it then."