Logan Sargeant will be the first driver to be replaced this season. Little Kimi’s chance?
It was recently announced that Logan Sargeant would be replaced at Imola, making Miami his final F1 stop, but why was Sargeant removed before the summer break of the season?
According to Joe Saward, an FiA accredited journalist for over 35 years, in the latest Green Notebook, Williams will replace Logan Sargeant at Imola with Kimi Antonelli. And allowed Logan Sargeant to make his final stand in front of his fans in Miami, USA.
According to Joe Saward's article, Sargeant will end up in Miami
And who is Kimi Antonelli? He is only 17 years old, and last year he was still running in the F4 region, and he was recruited as a youth driver by Mercedes. Many people praise him well and think that he is the same prodigy in the racing world as Max. He is in the F2 Prema team with Oliver Bearman as a teammate this year, although the performance is not so much top, ranking ninth. But the score is ahead of his teammate Xiong Man. This year, he also ran on the track with Benz's car from previous years, and he will continue to collect his data with the real car in the next week, but he is only 17 years old and cannot obtain the Super License, so he needs to rely on the FiA exemption to allow him to obtain the F1 seat, which is why there are rumors now.
As for why Williams changed drivers at Race seven? There are two possibilities:
With Kimi Antonelli hailed as a racing prodigy, could his F1 debut be closer than expected
1. You're really not performing as expected
Last year in the United States (COTA) with two DSQ to win the first point Sargeant, this year still poor performance, not yet scored, and almost every race with some distance from the points circle, and then also in Japan free practice crashed the car, indeed this year's performance seems to be better than last year, but in terms of the team, Will not want to continue to spend resources on drivers who have "no expectations".
2. There is a problem with business funding
The biggest situation Williams has had this year is the Australian Grand Prix changeover incident, Sargeant teammate Alex Albon crashed his car in free practice and could not be repaired, the team issued an order to change Sargeant's car to Albon, and Sargeant missed the Australian Grand Prix qualifying and race. And Albon didn't get any points. Although the replacement car was part of the team's contract with Sargeant, it angered fans and also angered Sargeant's American sponsors, who had sponsored the Australian Grand Prix as well as Williams, to support Sargeant. But the team did not give him a chance to play, and all those sponsors had to do was say bye-bye, and Sargeant would naturally have lost his seat in that team.
Is it possible to extend your F1 career if you do well in Miami?
Finally, I think this is also a message to Mercedes fans that Kimi may come to Mercedes tomorrow, Mercedes was going to get Sainz, Max and so on, but like Carlos Sainz is willing to go to Audi in 2026, so I don't think Mercedes will make him such a one-year offer. And the original plan is that next year Kimi will enter Williams, depending on the performance and then decide when to pull Bens; But obviously, if Williams snares Kimi early, it also seems to represent a chance to see George × Kimi next year.
*** Since all of this is still just Rumors, don't take it 100% seriously, pending official announcement ***
------This article and pictures are from reprint.
