Liam Lawson was left gobsmacked during the Mexico City Grand Prix when he had to slow down to avoid hitting two marshals who were running across the track. The incident occurred on the third lap of the Formula 1 race, as marshals at the first turn were alerted to debris on the circuit.
They were instructed to wait until all cars had passed the first turn before entering the circuit to clear the debris. However, they were seemingly unaware that Lawson had made a pit stop to replace his front wing, which had been damaged on the opening lap.
As he exited the pit lane and rounded the first corner, he was shocked to see two marshals on the track in front of him. The Kiwi driver had to reduce his speed to avoid colliding with one of them.
He immediately radioed in, shouting: “Mate, what the f***? Oh my god, are you kidding me? Oh my god, mate. I could have f***ing killed them, mate.” His Racing Bulls race engineer, Ernesto Desiderio, praised him for avoiding a potentially dangerous situation.
When asked for a statement about the incident, an FIA spokesperson told Express Sport that an investigation was underway and detailed the instructions given to the marshals by race control prior to the incident.
They said: “Following a turn one incident, race control was informed that debris was present on the track at the apex of that corner. On lap three, marshals were alerted and placed on standby to enter the track and recover the debris once all cars had passed turn one.
“As soon as it became apparent that Lawson had pitted, the instructions to dispatch marshals were rescinded, and a double yellow flag was shown in that area. We are still investigating what occurred after that point.”
Lawson appeared visibly shaken by the incident even after retiring from the race due to damage. He expressed: “I honestly couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I boxed, came out on a new set of hards, and then I got to turn one, and there were two blokes just running across the track. I nearly hit one of them.
“Honestly, it was so dangerous. Obviously, there’s been a miscommunication somewhere, but I’ve never experienced that before, and I haven’t really seen that in the past, so it’s pretty unacceptable.”
Lawson confirmed that he and his Racing Bulls team would “for sure” seek a full explanation regarding the circumstances and added: “We obviously can’t understand how, on a live track, the marshals can be allowed to just run across the track like that. So yeah, I have no idea why, but I’m sure we’ll get some explanation, but it really can’t happen again.”
