Mexican federation blames Liam Lawson for F1 marshal near-miss

Mexico’s motorsport federation has blamed Liam Lawson for failing to slow sufficiently under double yellow flags after a near-miss with marshals in the Mexico City grand Prix.

Lawson was at the very back of the back after making a pit stop to fix damage on his Racing Bulls car at the end of the second lap when the frightening incident occurred.

The Kiwi had remerged from the pits and was entering the first complex of corners when he narrowly avoided a collision with two marshals running across the track. The marshals had been dispatched to recover debris in the first sector, with that part of the circuit under double yellow flags.

On Tuesday, OMDAI Sport Mexico published a release analysing the incident, in which it accused Lawson of not slowing down sufficiently in the circumstances.

“When analysing the sequence from the camera onboard the car, it can be seen that driver Liam Lawson, as he approaches Turn 1, begins to turn to take the racing line, at which point the presence of the track marshals is clearly visible as they carry out their intervention procedures to collect the pieces that had been left behind as a result of the previous contact,” the statement reads.

“The proximity of the car to the work area shows that the track marshals were still active within the risky area, performing cleaning and safety tasks on the circuit.

“The images clearly show that driver Liam Lawson maintains the steering wheel angle of his car when taking Turn 1, without changing his trajectory, even though the track marshals were crossing the track to return to their post.

“This action occurs while personnel were still working in the area, which shows that the driver did not interrupt his line despite the obvious presence of marshals on the track.”

F1’s governing body FIA are investigating the circumstances of the incident.

"Following a turn one incident, race control was informed that debris was present on the track at the apex of that corner," said the FIA.

"On lap three, marshals were alerted and placed on standby to enter the track and recover the debris once all cars had passed.

"As soon as it became apparent that Lawson had pitted, the instructions to dispatch marshals were rescinded and a double yellow flag was shown in that area.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.”

Lawson shellshocked and furious

Lawson was understandably shocked by the incident and said on team radio to his race engineer: “Are you kidding me? Did you just see that? I could have... killed them.”

Following the race, Lawson added: "I honestly couldn't believe what I was seeing.

"[I] came out on a new set of hards [tyres], and then I got to Turn One 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."