Following Logan Sargeant’s confirmation, there is just one rookie driver who still needs a car number for the 2023 Formula 1 season.
Logan Sargeant was officially announced as the 20th and final driver on the 2023 Formula 1 grid after securing his Super License, with Williams confirming him as the replacement for Nicholas Latifi alongside Alexander Albon.
Williams had previously announced that the 21-year-old Floridian, who is set to become the first full-time American driver since 2006 and the first American driver on the grid at all since 2015, would take Latifi’s seat as long as he earned his Super License, which was not a guarantee heading into the season finale in Abu Dhabi.
But Sargeant did what he needed to do, and he has since confirmed that he plans to race with the No. 2 on his Mercedes-powered entry.
The No. 2 was most recently used in Formula 1 by Stoffel Vandoorne in 2018. When a driver no longer competes in Formula 1, his number is up for grabs if he has not competed for two entire consecutive seasons. Vandoorne hasn’t competed in any of the last four.
Sargeant had reportedly wanted to use the No. 3, but that number is still tied to Daniel Ricciardo even though Ricciardo lost his ride with McLaren after the 2022 season. The earliest season in which that number would become available is 2025, and that’s assuming Ricciardo doesn’t compete at all in 2023 or 2024.
Sargeant’s confirmation means that there is just one rookie driver still in need of a number for next year, and that is AlphaTauri’s Nyck de Vries.
The other two drivers set to enter Formula 1 next year are Oscar Piastri and Nico Hulkenberg. Piastri, a rookie, is set to drive for McLaren as Ricciardo’s replacement and use the No. 81.
Hulkenberg is a returning driver, having last competed full-time in 2019. Because he made four starts in 2020 and 2022, his No. 27 was never available for anybody else to select, and he is set to use it again when he joins Haas as Mick Schumacher’s replacement in 2023.
The 16 drivers from 2022 who are set to return to the grid in 2023, including the two who have switched teams (Fernando Alonso from Alpine to Aston Martin and Pierre Gasly from AlphaTauri to Alpine), are all set to use the same numbers.
As for de Vries, who is set to replace Gasly, he has yet to confirm which number he plans to use in 2023. He used the No. 45 for his Formula 1 debut with Williams at Monza this past season, when he filled in for Albon amid his bout with appendicitis. He used the No. 41 during post-season testing with AlphaTauri in Abu Dhabi.