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Formula 1 racer Liam Lawson disclosed he barely escaped a potentially deadly accident during Sunday's Mexico City Grand Prix when two safety personnel ran across the track immediately ahead of his car

The concerning event occurred on the third rotation when marshals were seen on the racing surface as Lawson was returning to the race following an early pitstop to change his damaged front wing

Driver's Immediate Reaction

Shortly afterward, Racing Bulls driver Lawson spoke to his pit wall engineer saying: "Is this for real? Did you just see that? I could have... killed them"

"I genuinely couldn't process what I was observing"

"I exited on a brand new hard tyres, and then I arrived at Turn One and there were just two individuals dashing across the track"

"I came close to striking one of them, frankly, it was extremely hazardous"

Safety Concerns Raised

"Evidently there's been a failure in communication at some point but I've never experienced that before, and I haven't previously witnessed that in the past. It's absolutely inexcusable"

"We can't understand how on a ongoing race track safety personnel can be allowed to just dash across the track like that. I don't understand the reason, I'm certain we'll get some kind of clarification, but it really can't happen again"

Formal Inquiry in Progress

F1's overseeing organization, the International Automobile Federation (FIA), is thoroughly reviewing the situation

"After an occurrence at turn one, the race directors was informed that wreckage remained on the track at the turning point of that curve" commented the regulatory authority

"In the third rotation, track officials were notified and put on alert to go onto the racing surface and remove the wreckage once all cars had passed"

"The moment it was realized that Lawson had pitted, the instructions to dispatch officials were canceled and a double yellow flag was shown in that section"

"We are still investigating what happened subsequent to that time"