Jost Capito discusses about situation at Williams with names like Oscar Piastri and Logan Sargeant being linked with a F1 seat.
The “silly season” has been upon F1 for a while and while some places are settled, others remain unconfirmed right now. At Williams, there are question marks over Nicholas Latifi who has endured a rough season while Alex Albon has excelled after his sabbatical.
Separately from Williams, Oscar Piastri has been mentioned. People in some quarters have been crying out for the Aussie hot shot to be on the grid, even this season. However, it also centers around Fernando Alonso and should he extend his drive with Alpine for next year, it leaves Piastri without an Alpine drive as Esteban Ocon is contracted to 2024.
Alpine have said they would be content to “loan” him. This could work for Williams should they replace a driver, most likely Latifi. However, also in the mix is American Sargeant who is part of the Williams driver academy and would of course already be acquainted with the Grove setup.
It is quite a conundrum for Capito but the popular German is well up to speed. “I think we’ve got various options, as you mentioned,” he said. “And that’s the options we are thinking about as well. And we will finally go for what we believe is the best for the team. But it’s too early to get into details, because we’re not there yet.”
In fairness, the season is just past the halfway point and as per Capito there are various options. In fact there are plenty of options for the team. With Alpine advising they would be keen to loan Piastri to another team, Williams might be a good option and as it is, the Aussie really should be on the grid next year at some team just going on his performances over the last number of seasons.
And Capito is fine to have Piastri if it works out even if it is on a loan basis. “I think if that was the best for us, then we would consider that,” he said. “If it’s not the best, if we have another, better solution, we will go for the better solution.”
It has been a really busy period for Williams. The team also fielded Nyck de Vries in Barcelona back in May, who is not part of the academy but got a chance. But with another FP1 session left to be done, Sargeant seems to be at the forefront to get the drive.
“I think that would be obvious,” said Capito. “We haven’t announced yet. Our young driver academy is working very well. We had three good results recently. Logan won the last two races and he set the car on pole yesterday, so I think he deserves to get into the car all right.”
Continuing on the Sargent topic, his performances in F2 have been most impressive with two victories over the last while, now lying third in the championship, he has a good chance of the title as his performances are getting more impressive by the weekend. Its quite a headache for Capito as it puts him in a quandary.
“It would be a great headache wouldn’t it,” said Capito. “I’ve had worse ones. Of course we are impressed. It’s his first season in F2. We didn’t put any pressure on him. So as I said, he has the time to develop and he’s really impressed us with how fast he has got to grips with the car, about the tyre management and getting results. How he got the pole yesterday was really impressive. He will be in a F1 car in the future, I’m absolutely convinced.”
Here’s Laurent Rossi on situation at Alpine