F1 competition ’extremely difficult - Sargeant

Logan Sargeant admits he is still getting up to speed in Formula 1.

Recently, rumours have swirled that Toto Wolff - whose Mercedes parent supplies engines to Williams - is pushing for Mick Schumacher to replace American Sargeant, 22, next year.

That’s because Sargeant has so far struggled to match up against his on-form teammate Alex Albon - but Sargeant insists he is happy to share the Williams garage with the British-born Thai driver.

"I think having a teammate of the calibre of Alex Albon is huge for me as a rookie," he said. "He is a real reference for me.

"He’s a great driver to learn from and, honestly, outside of racing, we get on very well and have a good laugh together. But honestly, I think he’s been one of the best drivers on the grid this year.

"I see it as a really good thing to have that as a reference point and see where I need to go."

But Sargeant admits that the opening nine grands prix of his fledgling Formula 1 career has been about more than simply trying to match Albon in the sister car.

"It’s extremely difficult, as you can imagine, to be up against 19 of the best drivers in the world," he said. "It’s so tight between 8th and 20th place.

"You put a foot wrong and it could be the difference between the top 10 and last place. So that’s the biggest challenge - making sure you’re at your best every day. But I feel it coming.

"I’m getting more and more comfortable with it. The objective is to eventually arrive at a point where I can extract everything that the car has in s tore throughout a weekend. That’s where I want to get to."

Unlike the previous race, where Albon was the sole Williams driver with the latest upgrade package, Sargeant had all the updates on his car in Austria.

The qualifying sessions were not competitive for the Floridian, but in the race he was just two places behind Albon - even though the pair were just out of the points.

"Austria was a good weekend for me for the most part, but I didn’t manage to get up to speed in qualifying," Sargeant admits. "Sunday was fine, because it was more of a representation of what our rhythm was like throughout the weekend.

"Overall it was a good race - a good step forward. I feel like it was the start of something good so we’ll try to build on that for Silverstone."