“Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso got endless testing”: Logan Sargeant talks about putting his F1 status into context

Williams driver Logan Sargeant feels that the time young F1 drivers spend in testing is too short to the likes of what Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso had back in the day.

The 2023 season of Formula 1 has seen multiple new drivers join the grid, and Sargeant is one of them alongside McLaren's Oscar Piastri. Despite both having the same experience racing in F1, there is a major difference in their performance.

Piastri currently has 83 points while Sargeant still awaits to score a single point. The difference between both teams' performances can be taken into account, but at the same time, Sargeant's teammate Alex Albon did bring in 23 points for the team.

Logan Sargeant, in his defense, mentioned that drivers like Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso had to face many different situations getting into F1. The testing time that the drivers had back in the day when these two debuted was far more than the current allotted time, with a much more complex car. Lewis Hamilton's rookie season was rather notable, and hence, Sargeant is in favor of giving rookies more time, as he told RacingNews365:

"It is just about building off the mistakes, and it might sound silly, but using them to your advantage to try and learn from them. Ideally, you’d have more testing, as that is the best way to prepare."

"I mean, back in the day when Lewis [Hamilton] and Fernando [Alonso] joined, everyone back then got endless days of testing. And in the current car, too, which is very different to what we experience now."

These statements, however, would make no difference to how Sargeant's performance has been so far. In order to secure a future with Williams or any other team in Formula 1, the American will have to score a handful of points at least in the final couple of races in the season.

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FIA to 'revisit' Lewis Hamilton's penalty in Qatar

After his crash on the opening lap of the race with teammate George Russell, Lewis Hamilton was seen crossing the track while cars were still running down.

Although they were far off to the other side of the circuit, it was still a violation in the FIA rulebook and he was fined €50,000 for the same. However, FIA recently revealed that they will be 'revisiting' the penalty because of the 'role model status' that Lewis Hamilton has.

According to them, it might motivate young drivers against the rules of the sport. Their statement read:

"The FIA is revisiting the incident in which Lewis Hamilton crossed a live track during the Qatar Grand Prix. The FIA notes that Lewis was apologetic during the subsequent stewards hearing in to the incident and acknowledged that the crossing was a serious safety breach."

"However, in view of his role model status, the FIA is concerned about the impression his actions may have created on younger drivers."

F1 journalist Will Buxton also shared his views on the same, saying no penalty should be modified because of their status as a driver and all the drivers should be penalized with the same intensity.