Logan Sargeant says the rookie FP1 outings that he had for Williams only offered him a limited preview of what he is facing in 2022, with the post-season test in Abu Dhabi proving more valuable.
Williams ran Sargeant in four practice sessions — in Austin, Mexico, Brazil and Abu Dhabi — to help him spend time in the car but also gain extra Super License points in case he had any issues in the final Formula 2 round. After comfortably securing his Super License, the American ran for Williams in the Abu Dhabi test for a full day last week and believes it offered him much more as he was able to dig into details during the longer outing.
“I think the FP1s gave me a taste,” Sargeant said. “I don’t think they allowed me to fully get comfortable in the car — I never really completely pushed as I needed the extra SL points just in case, but it obviously gave me a taste of the speed, brakes, downforce. But (the test) was the first chance I really started to use all of it.”
To get himself ready for F1, Sargeant says he’ll have to adapt his training due to the differences with the F2 car he has been racing this year, but he’ll also ensure he gets seat time in other machinery — including the 2021 car — to keep himself sharp.
“There’s certain things you can do with the way you sit, and the positioning you are in the car, and that’s all trial and error,” he noted. “But I come away knowing there’s a few things that I would want different from my position this year, but physically the difference between the F1 and F2 cars you need to be trained quite differently and that’s something I’ll take into the off-season to make sure we shift that to suit the F1 car.
“I just feel like in the F2 car, a lot of it is to do with upper body strength, not having the power steering, whereas (F1) is very much neck- and cardio-based. That’s the biggest differences.
“I think there’s positives to be found sitting in any seat. This winter I’m even going to jump in a KZ kart to keep my brain active. I feel like any sort of driving is a positive and I feel like there’s plenty to be gained by getting in anything.”
