Williams boss teases F1 2023 driver announcement at US GP
The 21-year-old American emerged as the prime candidate to replace Nicholas Latifi at the team next season after Nyck de Vries was signed by AlphaTauri to fill the seat vacated by Alpine-bound Pierre Gasly.
Sargeant, who is a member of the Williams Academy, has established himself as a frontrunner in his rookie F2 season and has claimed two feature race victories at Silverstone and the Red Bull Ring.
He now appears set to become the first American driver to race in F1 since Alexander Rossi’s five-race cameo with Manor in 2015.
Williams chief Capito teased the prospect of Sargeant being announced as Alex Albon’s teammate for next season during this weekend’s United States Grand Prix.
During a fan Q&A on Friday, Capito was asked when he thinks an American driver could next be seen on the F1 grid.
He responded: “Follow the news and you might see something on Saturday.”
Given the location of this weekend’s race, such an announcement would be an ideal marketing opportunity, one day after Sargeant made his practice debut with Williams.
However, Sargeant has not yet secured the FIA super licence points he requires in order to race in F1 next year.
Sargeant - who sits third in the F2 standings - currently needs a top-five finish in the championship by the end of next month’s season finale in Abu Dhabi to guarantee a superlicence.
Because he completed over 100km of running in his FP1 appearance at COTA, Sargeant earned one more superlicence point, moving him onto 28 of the required 40.
Providing he has a clean final round, Sargeant would also pick up two more superlicence points for not being hit with any penalty points in 2022.
In that scenario, a top-six finish in the F2 championship would be enough for Sargeant.
