Logan Sargeant secured his drive with Williams for the 2023 season, having acquired the requisite amount of points to secure his super licence. The Miami native has since been the talk of social media, not regarding his driving, but due to his perceived political stance.
Two liked tweets from 2018, and an Instagram post from his time in Renault Eurocup with the caption “Make America Great Again” will paint a particular picture of the future F1 Rookie. Some more recently have gone so far as to brand him “racist, misogynistic, probably homophobic and toxic” due to his speculated political leaning.
The truth is that aside from these crumbs, Logan has never been vocal about his politics. His Uncle specifically, Henry Sargeant III has been well documented in his support for the Republican party and has supported the campaigns of Rudy Gullianni, John McCain and Mitt Romney financially. However, Logan is not responsible for his family’s political conquests. In the same way, Carlos Sainz is not responsible for his Dad’s racist video from 2021.
“Motorsport has not to be used as a political platform. That is absolutely essential,”
FIA Jean Todt, in an interview with CNBC, following the 2021 Saudi Arabian GP.
Current state of politics in F1
The issue of politics in F1 is a much wider conversation than just the personal political belief of the drivers. The FIA was “delighted” to announce the bumper 2023 schedule, with an additional two races, before the cancellation of the Chinese GP earlier this week. The mechanical circus will be adding a third race in the US, and sees a return to Qatar, the same country that has been branded as “contributing to the climate crisis that is taking a growing toll on human rights around the globe” by Human Rights Watch and who have managed to generate a whole Wikipedia article on controversies surrounding their current holding of the 2022 World Cup.
The reality of it is, is that most of the countries that F1 visits have some questionable ethics. Human Rights Watch states that nearly all of the countries that hold a current F1 race have negative aspects. This ranges from pushing laws on citizens “with little regard for their impact on human rights” in the case of the United Kingdom to “Human rights violations—including torture, enforced disappearances, abuses against migrants, extrajudicial killings, gender-based violence, and attacks on independent journalists and human rights defenders” in Mexico during 2021.
This is without even touching on Azerbaijan, which is currently at war with neighbouring Armenia, and Saudi Arabia, where Women’s rights activists were abused, sexually harassed and electrocuted whilst detained in Saudi prisons, not to mention the missile strikes that hit just 10km away from the Jeddah Corniche circuit during FP1, which were visible by TV cameras.
Expected the Saudi GP to be off when the missile strike hit earlier, for the FIA to be so quick to state the show must go on didn’t sit right. No surprise to see the drivers taking a stand. Few sports take money as grubby as F1, this should be a wake-up call
Even the sponsors of teams up and down the grid are subject to scrutiny. Both McLaren and Ferrari have run sponsors linked to the tobacco industry, despite a clampdown in the mid-2000s, with BAT (British American Tobacco) and MissionWinnow, a Phillip Morris company, both appearing on the car since then.
Taking over from the previous boom of tobacco products, recently the focus has been on Web 3-based sponsors, with nearly every team on the grid having a sponsor related to the world of crypto in some capacity.
Mercedes were the first to be bit by what a lot of people saw coming, with the collapse of primary sponsor FTX, however, Mercedes deserve some credit, for cancelling the deal with insulation and building developer Kingspan, following links to the Grenfell Tower disaster.
No matter what we do politics of whatever kind will be a part of Formula one, despite what leading names and figures in the sport have to say about it. The reality of it is that the sport will take money from whoever keeps the wheels turning and lights on. This is all with the end goal of extending the reach of F1, a seemingly ever-growing sport.
Will F1 ever be “up to date” with politics, or will it always be an afterthought?
The Future
F1 has always had a history of taking money that isn’t exactly ethical, from tobacco to betting, to scams to countries with downright terrible human rights records. Going back to Logan, regardless of who he supports, or views about social topics, F1 and its fans have a lot more to worry about than him.
It is seemingly clear that the older figures such as Bernie Ecclestone and Jean Todt don’t want the sport to advance in its politics, undermining a large portion of the campaigns run by the FIA. Fans can see straight through the double standards of #RacingUnited and #DriveItOut as cheap “slacktivism” from Formula One and the FIA. Not to mention the countries they’re promoting getting a pass on atrocities via rampant sports washing.
It’s going to have to be a decision that is made fast by the powers that be, as the ever more youthful F1 fanbase will be wanting the sport to be thoroughly in the modern times when it comes to all issues of politics. It is becoming evident that said powers that be don’t want change, but the question becomes how long will it take before that opinion changes? Formula One may never take the cleanest money, or have the most ethical of internal politics, but will that be the case forever?
