{'I could have killed them' - Lawson faces near miss with Formula 1 safety personnel
Formula 1 driver Liam Lawson disclosed he came dangerously close to a life-threatening accident during Sunday's Mexico City Grand Prix when a pair of track officials ran across the track immediately ahead of his car
The concerning event took place on the third rotation when track officials were seen on the track as Lawson was getting back on the race following an premature pit stop to change his damaged front wing
Driver's Immediate Reaction
Immediately after, the team's competitor Lawson radioed to his race engineer saying: "Is this for real? Could you believe what happened? I might have... taken their lives"
"I truly couldn't comprehend what I was witnessing"
"I exited on a fresh hard compound tires, and then I arrived at Turn One and suddenly there were two individuals sprinting across the track"
"I nearly hit one of them, honestly, it was incredibly risky"
Track Safety Questioned
"Clearly there's been a communication breakdown somehow but I've never experienced that before, and I haven't really seen that in the past. It's absolutely inexcusable"
"We fail to grasp how on a active circuit safety personnel can be allowed to just sprint across the track like that. I don't understand the reason, 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 circumstances
"Following a turn one incident, race control was notified that wreckage remained on the track at the apex of that corner" stated the regulatory authority
"On lap three, marshals were notified and put on alert to go onto the racing surface and clear the fragments once the entire field had cleared the area"
"Immediately when it was understood that Lawson had made a pit stop, the directives to deploy officials were rescinded and a safety warning flag was shown in that zone"
"We are still investigating what transpired following that moment"
