🔗 Share this article

Formula 1 driver Liam Lawson disclosed he came dangerously close to a life-threatening collision during Sunday's F1 event in Mexico when a pair of track officials darted across the track right in his path

The dangerous situation happened on the third circuit when track officials were seen on the circuit as Lawson was getting back on the race following an premature pit stop to replace his broken nose section

Driver's Immediate Reaction

Shortly afterward, the Formula 1 racer Lawson radioed to his pit wall engineer saying: "Are you kidding me? Did you witness that? I nearly... ended their lives"

"I genuinely couldn't process what I was seeing"

"I exited on a new set of hards, and then I arrived at Turn One and there were just two individuals dashing across the track"

"I came close to striking one of them, truthfully, it was extremely hazardous"

Track Safety Questioned

"Evidently there's been a failure in communication somewhere but I've never experienced that before, and I haven't really seen that in the past. It's pretty unacceptable"

"We cannot comprehend how on a ongoing race track marshals can be authorized to just dash across the track like that. I don't understand the reason, I'm sure we'll get some form of reasoning, but this absolutely cannot recur"

Official Investigation Underway

The sport's regulatory authority, the International Automobile Federation (FIA), is currently investigating the circumstances

"Subsequent to a first corner event, the race directors was informed that fragments were located on the track at the critical section of that bend" commented the regulatory authority

"In the third rotation, track officials were informed and placed on standby to go onto the racing surface and remove the wreckage once all cars had passed"

"The moment it was realized that Lawson had pitted, the directives to deploy officials were withdrawn and a safety warning flag was shown in that section"

"The examination is ongoing what happened following that moment"