A Formula One fan on the Australian Grand Prix suffered a lower to his arm when struck through a work of particles from Kevin Magnussen’s automobile, placing the highlight on organisers’ protection protocols.
Will Sweet stated he used to be status along with his fiancée on a packed hill simply off flip two at Albert Park all through Sunday’s race when the Danish Haas driving force’s automobile hit the track-side barrier sending his tire and particles flying into the air.
“It slapped me in the arm and I was just standing there bleeding,” he advised radio station 3AW. “My arm was covering where my neck would’ve been, but if that had hit my fiancée, it would’ve got her right in the head.
“I realized 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 fiancé 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 organizers 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,” the stewards stated in a remark issued through the governing frame, the FIA.
The AGPC fronted stewards and admitted to the safety and security failures, agreeing it was an “unacceptable scenario that can have had disastrous penalties”.
Video posted on social media showed fans climbing trackside barriers.
Organizers 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 till 30 June to submit its review.
Organizers stated a crowd of 131,124 attended Albert Park on Sunday and a file general of 444,631 spectators around the race week.