Brundle blasts ‘crazy’ Lawson marshal near‑miss as FIA probes Mexican GP lapse
Martin Brundle didn’t mince his words after a jarring marshal near‑miss involving Liam Lawson in Mexico City, calling the early‑race moment “absolutely crazy” and “unacceptable” as the FIA works out how two track workers ended up running across a live circuit.
Lawson had just emerged from the pit lane on fresh hard tyres when he arrived at the Turn 1/2 chicane and was met by two marshals sprinting over the racing line. The Racing Bulls driver dodged left, missed one by a heartbeat, and erupted on the radio: “I could have f***ing killed them!”
Post‑race, Lawson was still shaking his head. “I honestly couldn’t believe what I was seeing,” he said. “I boxed, came out, 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… pretty unacceptable. We can’t understand how, on a live track, marshals can be allowed to just run across.”
Mexico’s national ASN, OMDAI, later issued an unofficial note alongside screenshots suggesting Lawson’s actions exacerbated the situation. That didn’t wash with Brundle. Speaking on Sky’s The F1 Show alongside Jacques Villeneuve, the ex‑F1 driver put responsibility squarely on the race direction side of the radio.
“This is stuff from the 60s, 70s, 80s, and it shouldn’t happen,” Villeneuve said. Brundle agreed, and you could hear the old scars. He recounted aquaplaning into a marshal in the Suzuka downpour back in 1994 — “I still feel sick in my stomach today thinking about it” — and a separate touring car race in Italy where the ‘debris’ he radioed in turned out to be a marshal who’d been killed.
“These people are out there for the drivers’ safety,” Brundle said, “and we owe them absolute safety back.” On Mexico: “It was unacceptable to send them out there. From what I could see, they picked up one piece in a run‑off and the biggest piece in the grass. What on earth were they doing out there? They didn’t need to be out there — and they’d gone across the track twice. Absolutely crazy.”
Brundle added that “Race Control or the stewards didn’t have a particularly strong weekend,” while acknowledging the reality of rotating local crews, language barriers and the constant pressure to keep a global show tight. “It’s very easy to criticise,” he said, “it’s not easy to drop in around the world and have instant brilliance.”
The FIA later outlined its version of events. After contact at Turn 1 left debris on the apex, marshals were put on standby on Lap 3 to recover it after the field had cleared the corner. As Lawson ducked into the pits, the instruction to release marshals was rescinded and double yellows were shown — and yet, somehow, the marshals went out.
“Following a Turn 1 incident, Race Control was informed that debris was present on the track at the apex,” read the statement. “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.”
That last line is the nub. Somewhere between Race Control, the post marshals, and the flag points, a message chain broke. Whether it was timing, language, or a simple human lapse, the outcome was the same: two volunteers in harm’s way and a driver close to catastrophe.
One late call that did earn Brundle’s approval was Race Control’s Virtual Safety Car for Carlos Sainz’s stricken Williams. Villeneuve branded the VSC “complete nonsense,” arguing the car was mostly out of harm’s way at an innocuous part of the circuit. Brundle pushed 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,” he said. “Better safe than sorry.” In other words, if you’re sending humans into even a remotely live zone, cover them.
It’s worth separating two things: recovering debris under local yellows at Turn 1 went wrong; neutralising the race to protect people at another part of the track went right. One is procedure and comms. The other is caution when it counts.
As for Lawson, the 23‑year‑old did what he could: avoid, breathe, and call it out. “I’m sure we’ll get some explanation,” he said. It needs to be a good one. Marshals save drivers more often than most fans realise, and they deserve systems that don’t put them in the line of fire. The FIA’s investigation is ongoing; the expectation from the paddock is simple — close the loop, fix the protocol, and don’t let it happen again.
