{'I could have killed them' - Lawson faces close call with Formula 1 track officials
Formula 1 racer Liam Lawson stated he narrowly avoided a potentially fatal incident during Sunday's F1 event in Mexico when a pair of track officials crossed the track directly in front of him
The dangerous situation occurred on the third rotation when safety workers were spotted on the racing surface as Lawson was getting back on the race following an premature pit stop to swap his damaged front wing
Racer's Instant Response
Immediately after, the team's competitor Lawson communicated to his race engineer saying: "You've got to be joking? Did you just see that? I nearly... ended their lives"
"I genuinely couldn't process what I was witnessing"
"I exited on a fresh hard compound tires, and then I arrived at Turn One and suddenly there were two dudes running across the track"
"I nearly hit one of them, honestly, it was so dangerous"
Safety Concerns Raised
"Evidently there's been a miscommunication somewhere but This is the first time I've faced that before, and I haven't really seen that in the past. It's completely unacceptable"
"We fail to grasp how on a live track safety personnel can be permitted to just run across the track in that manner. I'm clueless about the cause, I'm certain we'll get some sort of explanation, but it really can't happen again"
Official Investigation Underway
F1's overseeing organization, the FIA, is actively examining the circumstances
"After an occurrence at turn one, the race directors was informed that debris was present on the track at the apex of that corner" stated the governing body
"In the third rotation, marshals were alerted and put on alert to enter the track and remove the wreckage once every vehicle had gone by"
"The moment it was realized that Lawson had pitted, the directives to deploy officials were withdrawn and a safety warning flag was shown in that area"
"We are still investigating what occurred subsequent to that time"
