Logan Sargeant: “I loved every second of it”

I’ve had a few days now to reflect on my first race weekend as an official Formula 1 driver. Arriving on Thursday I was very comfortable, we had just had testing and I felt like I was as prepared as I could be for the weekend.

It was quite nice to have three Free Practice sessions to play with instead of the one I had been used to! I was able to get the car into a window and find a good place to be for Qualifying and the Grand Prix – I just enjoyed the whole weekend and I loved every second of it.

My off-season was full of physical work, simulator work and work on expanding my mental capacity, all of which has dramatically improved from last year. All the hours put in were worth it, but there’s still a lot to do.

I feel that there’s still a lot of room for improvement and, to be honest, it’s a positive that I still have room to grow as an F1 driver.

It’s only right that I pay tribute to someone who has been on this journey with me; my trainer, Ben Jacobs. Working with Ben over the last six years has been critical for me as a driver.

Of course, he’s been getting me into grand prix condition physically, but we’ve been working on that for years. It wasn’t just one off-season that made a complete difference, but even just having that friend to travel with, someone who I’m comfortable being around, makes a huge difference through the weekends and can keep me more relaxed.

My first Quali, I mean, wow. 0.000 seconds?! I don’t think I’ve ever done the exact same time as someone before, especially for such a pivotal position in Qualifying.

It was definitely bittersweet. It’s a little frustrating but at the same time, I feel like I did a relatively good job for my first F1 Quali, but it would’ve been nice to get to Q2. I feel like we had a really good package on Saturday and could have secured a grid spot further up the order.

On the race, I’m so happy for the team and for Alex after picking up our first point. It’s a testament to the work that we’ve put in from the testing to this race, and everyone’s been positive.

We didn’t think we had the pace we did, but we were able to unlock it and that’s super positive. For me going forward, it has given me confidence but I’m now going into a few tracks that I don’t know very well, ones that are extremely challenging. I’m still expecting difficulties along the way, but it’s a great start and a solid foundation to build on.

Alex has been a great benchmark for myself, he’s a brilliant driver to learn from. Everyone knows that he’s extremely quick plus he has a good amount of experience in F1. As a rookie, that’s super beneficial – I’ve enjoyed working with Alex so far.

I’ve also been able to learn plenty from James Vowles. He has fit into the team really well, he’s brought a new sense of motivation to everyone and I feel like I’ve been able to take great advice from him.

He’s great at working with young drivers, so I plan on just keeping that progression going and keep learning from his experience.

Going into the rest of 2023, from a personal side, I feel very optimistic. I believe I can compete at a high level, I feel like I have a lot of room to keep growing and that’s a real positive for me.

From a team perspective, we have to keep working hard. I honestly don't know what to expect at this point, but if we can all keep working hard to make the car better and to keep delivering upgrades, hopefully, we can stay competitive through the year.