{'I could have killed them' - Lawson faces near miss with Formula 1 safety personnel
Formula 1 driver Liam Lawson disclosed he narrowly avoided a potentially fatal collision during Sunday's Mexico City Grand Prix when two safety personnel crossed the track immediately ahead of his car
The alarming incident occurred on the third rotation when track officials were spotted on the racing surface as Lawson was getting back on the race following an premature pit stop to replace his broken nose section
Racer's Instant Response
Immediately after, the team's competitor Lawson radioed to his pit wall engineer saying: "Is this for real? Could you believe what happened? I could have... killed them"
"I genuinely couldn't process what I was observing"
"I came out on a brand new hard tyres, and then I arrived at Turn One and there were just two guys running across the track"
"I almost collided with one of them, frankly, it was so dangerous"
Security Issues Highlighted
"Clearly there's been a failure in communication at some point but I've never encountered that before, and I haven't previously witnessed that in the past. It's absolutely inexcusable"
"We cannot comprehend how on a active circuit marshals can be allowed to just dash across the track like that. I have no idea why, I'm sure we'll get some form of reasoning, but this absolutely cannot recur"
Official Investigation Underway
Formula 1's governing body, the FIA, is currently investigating the events
"After an occurrence at turn one, the race directors was informed that fragments were located on the track at the apex of that corner" commented the FIA
"During the third lap, safety personnel were alerted and made ready to enter the track and clear the fragments once the entire field had cleared the area"
"The moment it was realized that Lawson had entered the pits, the orders to send personnel were canceled and a caution signal was raised in that zone"
"The examination is ongoing what occurred after that point"
