Martin Brundle recalls hitting marshal as ‘crazy’ Lawson situation slammed

Martin Brundle was left far from impressed with what he deemed an “absolutely crazy” scene at the Mexican GP, as Liam Lawson narrowly avoided a pair of marshals.

Recalling an incident where he struck a marshal, which still makes him feel “sick”, and seeing a “dead marshal” on track, Brundle said the events of the Mexican Grand Prix were “unacceptable”. An unofficial statement has since pointed the finger of blame at Lawson.

Martin Brundle horrified by Mexican GP scene

Lawson, after exiting the pit lane, encountered two marshals at the opening chicane early in the Mexican GP. After taking avoiding action, he fired up Racing Bulls team radio and said: “I could have f***ing killed them!”

Speaking to PlanetF1.com and other media outlets after the race, he added: “I honestly couldn’t believe what I was seeing.

“I boxed, came out on a new set of hards, and then I got to Turn 1 and there were two dudes running across the track.

“I nearly hit one of them. It was so dangerous. There’s been a miscommunication somewhere. I’ve never experienced that before and I’ve never really seen that in the past, so pretty unacceptable.

“We can’t understand how, on a live track, marshals can be allowed to just run across the track like that.

“So, yeah, I mean, I have no idea why, but I’m sure we’ll get some explanation, but it really can’t happen again.”

On Wednesday, the Mexican International Motor Sport Federation (OMDAI), issued a statement and a series of screenshots relating to the incident, suggesting that Lawson had exacerbated the situation with his actions.

Brundle, while acknowledging the challenges of upholding marshalling standards across a world championship, placed the blame at Race Control’s door.

Brundle appeared on Sky’s ‘The F1 Show’ podcast alongside 1997 World Champion Jacques Villeneuve, who said the scene in Mexico was “stuff from the 60s, 70s, 80s, and it shouldn’t happen.” Brundle agreed, and recalled two prior incidents to back it up.

In addition to aquaplaning into a marshal at the 1994 Japanese Grand Prix, Brundle spoke of how he previously reported debris during a touring car race, only to find out that it was a “dead marshal”.

“People, corner workers, marshals, paramedics who are out there, are out there for the drivers’ safety, and we owe them absolute safety back themselves,” he said.

“I hit a marshal in a downpour in Suzuka once and smashed his legs, and nothing I could do about it, because I just aquaplaned off the track, but I still am sick in my stomach today, thinking about it.

“In the 80s, Jacques was referring to, I was in a touring car race in Italy, and I reported some debris on the track. It turned out to be a dead marshal somebody had hit.”

On what happened in Mexico, Brundle continued: “It’s just unacceptable. It was unacceptable to send them out there because, from what I could see, they picked up one piece in a run-off area and the biggest piece in the grass.

“What on earth were they doing out there? They didn’t need to be out there, especially as they had gone across the track twice to do that. That was absolutely crazy.

“I don’t think Race Control or the stewards had a particularly strong weekend, if I’m honest.

“But then I know it’s difficult. When you’ve got local people working trackside, you’ve got language issues, it’s not easy. It’s very easy to criticise, it’s not easy to drop in around the world and have instant brilliance in every respect.”

In an official FIA statement, Formula 1’s governing body stated that the instruction to dispatch marshals to retrieve the debris had been rescinded.

“Following a Turn 1 incident, Race Control was informed that debris was present on the track at the apex of that corner,” the statement read.

“On Lap 3, 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.”

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One decision which Brundle did side with Race Control on was the move to deploy a late Virtual Safety Car to cover Carlos Sainz’s stricken Williams.

Villeneuve called that decision “complete nonsense” as “mostly the car was completely out of the way”, at a part of the track where “no one ever crashes”.

Considering the comments he just made, Brundle was glad to see Race Control err on the side of caution.

He said: “The car sticking out at the back… If marshals had to go into the firing line to push Sainz’s car further, if they were exposed… We’ve seen marshals killed before. We’ve seen it happen in Melbourne. I would say better safe than sorry.

“If they had to move into a zone, or put a vehicle into a zone that even remotely could be hit by a car on the track, then better safe than sorry.”

The outcome of the FIA’s Mexican GP investigation is yet to be concluded or communicated.

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