{'I could have killed them' - Lawson encounters close call with F1 track officials
Formula 1 driver Liam Lawson disclosed he barely escaped a potentially fatal incident during Sunday's Mexico City Grand Prix when two safety personnel crossed the track immediately ahead of his car
The alarming incident took place on the third lap when track officials were observed on the track as Lawson was returning to the race following an early pitstop to change his damaged front wing
Competitor's Live Reaction
Shortly afterward, the team's competitor Lawson radioed to his team engineer saying: "You've got to be joking? Could you believe what happened? I nearly... ended their lives"
"I genuinely couldn't process what I was seeing"
"I exited on a brand new hard tyres, and then I arrived at Turn One and unexpectedly appeared two dudes dashing across the track"
"I nearly hit one of them, frankly, it was incredibly risky"
Safety Concerns Raised
"Clearly there's been a failure in communication at some point but I've never experienced that before, and I can't recall observing that in the past. It's absolutely inexcusable"
"We fail to grasp how on a live track track officials can be authorized to just sprint across the track in that manner. I'm clueless about the cause, I'm confident we'll get some sort of explanation, but this absolutely cannot recur"
Official Investigation Underway
Formula 1's governing body, the global motorsport federation, is actively examining the events
"Subsequent to a first corner event, the race directors was advised that wreckage remained on the track at the apex of that corner" stated the governing body
"On lap three, safety personnel were alerted and made ready to go onto the racing surface and remove the wreckage once every vehicle had gone by"
"Immediately when it was understood that Lawson had entered the pits, the directives to deploy marshals were withdrawn and a double yellow flag was displayed in that zone"
"We are still investigating what occurred subsequent to that time"
