Lawson calls near-miss with marshals 'unacceptable' as FIA launches investigation

Liam Lawson says it is “unacceptable” that two marshals were on track when he approached at racing speed early in the Mexico City Grand Prix.

The Racing Bulls driver suffered front wing damage and came into the pits at the end of the second lap when debris was reported at Turn 1. When he left the pits, Lawson came across two marshals in the middle of the circuit between Turn 1 and Turn 2 despite the race still being live, and had to take evasive action.

“I honestly couldn’t believe what I was seeing,” Lawson said. “Boxed, came out on a new set of hards, and then I got to Turn 1 and there were just two dudes running across the track. I nearly hit one of them, honestly. It was so dangerous.

“Obviously there’s been a miscommunication somewhere but I’ve never experienced that before, and I haven’t really seen that in the past. It’s pretty unacceptable. We can’t understand how on a live track, marshals can be allowed to just run across the track like that. I have no idea why. I’m sure we’ll get some sort of explanation, but it really can’t happen again.”

Lawson’s team radio at the time explained the extent of his shock:

Lawson: “Wait, the f**k, oh my God, are you kidding me?! Did you just see that?”

Engineer: “Yeah, saw it.”

Lawson: “Oh my God, dude.”

Engineer: “Yeah, well done to avoid them.”

Lawson: “I could have f***ing killed them, mate.”

The FIA says the marshals had been lined up to go and clear debris when the field was bunched up, but that it had cancelled the call when Lawson pitted to drop behind the rest of the pack.

“Following a Turn 1 incident, Race Control was informed that debris was present on the track at the apex of that corner,” an FIA statement read. “On lap three, Marshals were alerted and placed on standby to enter the track and recover the debris once all cars had passed Turn 1.

“As soon as it became apparent that Lawson had pitted, the instructions to dispatch marshals were rescinded, and a double yellow flag was shown in that area. We are still investigating what occurred after that point.”

The FIA also explained the reason for the short Virtual Safety Car period late in the race after Carlos Sainz stopped, temporarily pausing fights for positions on the penultimate and final laps.

“On lap 70, Sainz spun and stopped in the runoff area on the outside of Turn 14. His car came to a halt in an exposed position. The car subsequently began smoking and race control received notifications of fire, making it clear that marshal intervention would be required for recovery. As is standard procedure when marshals are deployed to recover a car, the race is neutralized, in this case, a Virtual Safety Car (VSC) was triggered until the car was moved to a safe location behind the barriers. The VSC ended as soon as the car was in a protected position, and the race concluded under green-flag conditions."