Australian GP Safety Under Scrutiny After F1 Fan Hit by Debris and Others Invade Track
A Formula One fan at the Australian Grand Prix suffered a cut to his arm when struck by a piece of debris from Kevin Magnussen’s car, putting the spotlight on organisers’ safety protocols.
Will Sweet said he was standing with his fiancee on a packed hill just off turn two at Albert Park during Sunday’s race when the Danish Haas driver’s car hit the track-side barrier sending his tyre and debris flying into the air.
“It slapped me in the arm and I was just standing there bleeding,” he told radio station 3AW. “My arm was covering where my neck would’ve been, but if that had hit my fiancee, it would’ve got her right in the head.
“I realised how big it was and how heavy it was. Part of it was shredded and really sharp, if it hit me in a different angle, it could’ve been horrendous,” he added.
Sweet said the area he was standing was packed, with young children around, and that no race officials came to assist him. “No one even came and looked,” he said. “My fiancee was pretty spooked by it and borderline shell-shocked.”
At the 2001 Australian Grand Prix, a track marshal was killed when hit by the wheel of Jacques Villeneuve’s car following a crash with Williams’ Ralf Schumacher.
The AGPC did not provide immediate comment.
The race’s organisers were already under scrutiny after a large number of fans invaded the track near the end of the race.
Late on Sunday, Formula One stewards ordered the Australian Grand Prix Corporation (AGPC) to urgently produce a “remediation plan” in response to security and safety failures that allowed fans to access the track.
Spectators managed to break through security and access the track, with some reaching the car driven by Haas’s Nico Hulkenberg as it was parked at the exit of turn two.
“All of this presented significant danger to the spectators; race officials and the drivers,” stewards said in a statement issued by the governing body, FIA.
The AGPC fronted stewards and admitted to the safety and security failures, agreeing it was an “unacceptable situation that could have had disastrous consequences”.
Video posted on social media showed fans climbing trackside barriers.
Organisers were told to provide a formal remediation plan to address the failures, including a review of the marshals protecting Hulkenberg’s car.
Stewards also requested that the FIA referred the incident to the governing body’s World Motor Sports Council to determine whether penalties should be applied. The AGPC asked to have until 30 June to submit its review.
Organisers said a crowd of 131,124 attended Albert Park and a record total of 444,631 spectators across the race week.
The post Australian GP Safety Under Scrutiny After F1 Fan Hit by Debris and Others Invade Track was originally published on The Guardian.
