Formula 1: Why Logan Sargeant no longer finds himself in last place

In his rookie Formula 1 season a year ago, Williams' Logan Sargeant finished in 21st place in the driver standings, even though there are only 20 cars on the grid. The two drivers who replaced the scoreless Nyck de Vries at AlphaTauri both managed to outscore Sargeant in a limited number of starts.

The 23-year-old Fort Lauderdale, Florida native scored his first career point with a 10th place finish in the United States Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas after two drivers who initially finished ahead of him were disqualified.

Through the first 13 races on the record-breaking 24-race 2024 calendar, Sargeant is one of three scoreless full-time drivers. And because Oliver Bearman scored six points with a seventh place finish as Carlos Sainz Jr.'s replacement at Ferrari in the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix at Jeddah Corniche Circuit, last place is 21st.

But Logan Sargeant is no longer the last place driver.

The other two scoreless drivers this year are Sauber teammates Zhou Guanyu and Valtteri Bottas. Zhou opened up the season with an 11th place finish in the Bahrain Grand Prix at Bahrain International Circuit, while it took Bottas until the season's eighth and ninth races in Monaco and Canada to record season-best 13th place results.

Even before Bottas scored back-to-back 13th place finishes, he was ahead of Sargeant in the standings due to having two 14th place finishes as his best finishes in Australia and Japan; Sargeant had only posted one in Saudi Arabia.

But Sargeant recently finished in a season-high 11th place in the British Grand Prix at Silverstone Circuit, moving him ahead of Bottas for 20th in the standings, despite the fact that he did not score.

With Zhou having recorded a 13th place as his second best result in the Spanish Grand Prix at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, he remains ahead of Sargeant for 19th in the standings.

The next race on the 2024 Formula 1 schedule is the Belgian Grand Prix, which Sargeant finished in 17th place last year. This race is the final race before the four-week summer break, and it is set to be broadcast live on ESPN from Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps beginning at 8:55 a.m. ET on Sunday, July 28. Start a free trial of FuboTV now and don't miss it!