Comment on Fort Lauderdale native Logan Sargeant is home for Miami Grand Prix, living the Formula 1 dream while staving off the nightmare

Logan Sargeant, the dashing 23-year-old Fort Lauderdale native who is the only American driver on the popular Formula 1 circuit, can always draw a crowd, especially when he’s promoting Sunday’s Miami Grand Prix. Amaya Mateo and Megumi Schiroma, a pair of 18-year-old seniors from Hollywood, left Pembroke Pines Charter High School on Tuesday afternoon and drove to South Beach, almost an hour, to join the boisterous throng of Sargeant fans on Lincoln Road. Upon arrival at the storefront location, Mateo and Schiroma joined about 200 others. The place was buzzing with anticipation. The vibe was tangible. The crowd was young, energetic, excited and eager. Sargeant, who has experienced meteoric success in his racing career, loves seeing such F1 enthusiasm in South Florida, and loves knowing he can help bring more publicity to this mostly European sport in America in hyper-local fashion. “To be racing where it all started for me, 20 minutes from home, 20 minutes from where I grew up,” Sargeant said, “is special.” Beneath all the excitement and energy, however, is the pressure of being in the top tier of your sport and staying there. Sargeant, the face of American F1 racing, is feeling that in a big way. There’s already a throng of drivers lined up to take advantage of his tenuous hold on his spot on the Williams Racing team. In his second year on the grid, Sargeant has only collected one point in 26 starts, and that was a 10th-place finish. Worse, last month’s two-point infraction at the China Grand Prix means he now has eight penalty points, four away from a one-race suspension under the penalty points system.