{'I could have killed them' - Lawson encounters near miss with F1 safety personnel
Formula 1 racer Liam Lawson stated he came dangerously close to a life-threatening accident during Sunday's Mexican Grand Prix when two marshals ran across the track immediately ahead of his car
The alarming incident occurred on the third lap when track officials were observed on the racing surface as Lawson was getting back on the race following an premature pit stop to swap his compromised front wing
Racer's Instant Response
Shortly afterward, the Formula 1 racer Lawson radioed to his pit wall engineer saying: "Are you kidding me? Did you just see that? I nearly... ended their lives"
"I honestly couldn't believe what I was witnessing"
"I exited on a new set of hards, and then I arrived at Turn One and there were just two dudes sprinting across the track"
"I almost collided with one of them, frankly, it was incredibly risky"
Security Issues Highlighted
"Obviously there's been a communication breakdown somewhere but I've never encountered 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 track officials can be permitted to just run across the track in such a way. I have no idea why, I'm certain we'll get some form of reasoning, but it really can't happen again"
Official Investigation Underway
The sport's regulatory authority, the FIA, is actively examining the events
"Subsequent to a first corner event, track officials was advised that debris was present on the track at the turning point of that curve" commented the regulatory authority
"In the third rotation, track officials were alerted and made ready to enter the track and clear the fragments once every vehicle had gone by"
"As soon as it became apparent that Lawson had entered the pits, the instructions to dispatch officials were canceled and a double yellow flag was shown in that zone"
"We are still investigating what transpired subsequent to that time"
