F1 Driver Turns Mentor to Make American Newbie Logan Sargeant’s Life Easier Ahead of the 2023 Season

Williams is ushering in a new phase, with all things changing as they enter the 2023 season. A new driver lineup, a new sponsor, and a new team principal. Undoubtedly, things will be more challenging for them than they were a year ago, even though they finished last on the grid in the championship standings.

And as they prepare, we look up the person who has been here before this year, and we only find Alex Albon, who himself has been here only for a year. With a large possible shift coming in and James Vowles bringing in new engineers, the task will be in Albon’s hands as well to manage things and ensure smooth operation. But most importantly, he has to help out Williams by assuming a senior role over the American rookie Logan Sargeant, and unsurprisingly, he understands the role and his responsibilities well enough.

In an interview with Autosport, the Thai-British driver said, “Of course, I’ve got a new team-mate as well. I want us both to work together to speed up the development, and to do that you need to get Logan also up to speed in terms of his development to be able to give the feedback and push in the areas that we need to push.”

“Two people pushing for the same thing, that really builds synergy and teams start to have a good dynamic where you’re all pushing for the same thing.”

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Alex Albon won’t be mentoring for the first time. Most recently, Red Bull appointed him to mentor 2021 AlphaTauri rookie Yuki Tsunoda. So, giving Albon a long-term contract would help the team overall since it would ensure the mutually inclusive development of both of its drivers.

Alex Albon opens up about success at Williams

Alex Albon returned to F1 after a gap year, having last raced in 2020 for Red Bull before the 2022 season opener with Williams. A year off helped him learn things more effectively as he took on different roles with Red Bull. This further helped him bag all 8 points of Williams in the challenging FW-44.

Speaking about this achievement, he said, “Talking about on-track stuff, I think qualifying was a bit more of a priority in terms of really getting on top of the tires and getting clean laps. I knew exactly what I wanted to do; it was just about doing it.”

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Alex certainly improved the team and kept things moving. But the most iconic performance from the season was in Australia, where he completed the entire race except for the final lap on a single set of tires. So, with Albon on his side, Williams will have one less thing to worry about.