While Max Verstappen has been dominating the Formula 1 world this year, Logan Sargeant has been his antithesis.
Things started pretty well for the Floridian. He finished 12th in the first race of the year, the Bahrain Grand Prix – not in the points, but also not looking out of place in what is historically a cut-throat sport.
Since then, though, things have looked much more difficult for Sargeant. The Williams driver hasn't come close to threatening the top 10 in any of the six races since and, in the most recent three, has been dead last of the drivers that have completed the Grand Prix.
It's definitely not a good look for Sargeant. And it's far from ideal for his country – the US finally has a full-time F1 driver for the first time since the aptly-named Scott Speed was axed by Toro Rosso back in 2007, in favour of some bloke named Sebastian Vettel.
While F1's top bosses can't show favouritism, there's little doubt they want Sargeant to be a success. After all, the US is a market they have spent decades trying to crack and have only managed to make significant progress on that front in the last few years.
There is now a huge American audience that has been captured by F1 and, in Sargeant, they have a hero carrying the Stars and Stripes on their behalf. Watching him finish last every week is not something that is going to keep them engaged forever.
That said, in Sargeant's case, it's important to be patient. It's worth remembering that he was not supposed to be in this position right now. The plan was for him to spend at least another year learning his trade and honing his skills in Formula 2 before making the step up.
But Williams had to change their plans. Oscar Piastri was being lined up for the seat in a loan-style deal with Alpine until it emerged he had signed a contract with McLaren. Then Nyck de Vries became the focus after his eye-catching debut at Monza last year, but AlphaTauri beat them to his signature.
The other driver they might have chased was Mick Schumacher, but Haas was waiting until the end of last season to make their decision over his future and Williams would have seen that as a risk. So former team principal Jost Capito revealed – earlier than planned – that Sargeant was their man of choice to replace Nicholas Latifi.
It hinged on whether he would earn his superlicence but that proved not to be a problem. But just because Sargeant has a piece of paper which allows him to race in F1, it doesn't mean he is ready for it. Williams knew he wasn't but circumstances led to him getting that seat anyway.
That is why this season's results cannot be used as a yardstick against which to measure his suitability for an F1 seat – nor can they be another type of stick used to beat him with. This is a much steeper learning curve than intended and, in reality, it is no surprise that he has found the adjustment to be tough.
The important thing for Sargeant is that he keeps working hard and absorbing information from the people he has around him. Alex Albon is a great partner for him to have – skilled and quick, but also not too egotistical – while new boss James Vowles has plenty of experience in developing young drivers from his years with Mercedes.
Criticism of Sargeant on social media is no surprise, but all those trolls are doing is looking at the results alone and not considering any of the context. The best thing he can do is shut out the noise and just focus on getting himself into the position he needs to be in to eventually silence them.
