{'I could have killed them' - Lawson experiences near miss with Formula 1 track officials
Formula 1 driver Liam Lawson disclosed he narrowly avoided a potentially fatal collision during Sunday's F1 event in Mexico when a pair of track officials darted across the track immediately ahead of his car
The dangerous situation took place on the third lap when marshals were seen on the racing surface as Lawson was returning to the race following an early pitstop to change his damaged front wing
Racer's Instant Response
Immediately after, Racing Bulls driver Lawson radioed to his team engineer saying: "Are you kidding me? Could you believe what happened? I might have... taken their lives"
"I truly couldn't comprehend what I was seeing"
"I exited on a new set of hards, and then I arrived at Turn One and there were just two guys running across the track"
"I nearly hit one of them, honestly, it was so dangerous"
Safety Concerns Raised
"Obviously there's been a communication breakdown at some point but This is the first time I've faced that before, and I haven't really seen that in the past. It's completely unacceptable"
"We fail to grasp how on a active circuit track officials can be permitted to just sprint across the track like that. I'm clueless about the cause, I'm sure we'll get some sort of explanation, but this must never be repeated"
Official Investigation Underway
Formula 1's governing body, the International Automobile Federation (FIA), is actively examining the situation
"After an occurrence at turn one, race control was notified that fragments were located on the track at the apex of that corner" stated the governing body
"In the third rotation, safety personnel were notified and placed on standby to access the circuit and clear the fragments once every vehicle had gone by"
"The moment it was realized that Lawson had entered the pits, the directives to deploy marshals were rescinded and a caution signal was shown in that section"
"The examination is ongoing what transpired after that point"
