{'I could have killed them' - Lawson experiences near miss with Formula 1 track officials
Formula 1 racer Liam Lawson stated he narrowly avoided a potentially fatal accident during Sunday's F1 event in Mexico when two safety personnel darted across the track directly in front of him
The alarming incident happened on the third circuit when safety workers were observed on the circuit as Lawson was getting back on the race following an early pitstop to replace his broken nose section
Driver's Immediate Reaction
Immediately after, the Formula 1 racer Lawson spoke to his race engineer saying: "Are you kidding me? Did you just see that? I nearly... ended their lives"
"I truly couldn't comprehend what I was observing"
"I came out on a brand new hard tyres, and then I approached Turn One and unexpectedly appeared two guys sprinting across the track"
"I nearly hit one of them, frankly, it was extremely hazardous"
Safety Concerns Raised
"Clearly there's been a failure in communication at some point but I've never encountered that before, and I can't recall observing that in the past. It's completely unacceptable"
"We cannot comprehend how on a ongoing race track marshals can be permitted to just run across the track like that. I have no idea why, I'm sure we'll get some kind of clarification, but this absolutely cannot recur"
Governing Body Reviewing
Formula 1's governing body, the global motorsport federation, is thoroughly reviewing the events
"Subsequent to a first corner event, race control was informed that debris was present on the track at the apex of that corner" commented the FIA
"In the third rotation, track officials were informed and placed on standby to access the circuit and remove the wreckage once the entire field had cleared the area"
"As soon as it became apparent that Lawson had made a pit stop, the instructions to dispatch personnel were withdrawn and a safety warning flag was displayed in that zone"
"The examination is ongoing what happened subsequent to that time"