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Formula 1 driver Liam Lawson disclosed he came dangerously close to a potentially deadly incident during Sunday's Mexican Grand Prix when a pair of track officials darted across the track immediately ahead of his car

The dangerous situation took place on the third circuit when safety workers were seen on the racing surface as Lawson was getting back on the race following an early pitstop to swap his damaged front wing

Driver's Immediate Reaction

Shortly afterward, the team's competitor Lawson radioed to his team engineer saying: "You've got to be joking? Did you just see that? I nearly... ended their lives"

"I truly couldn't comprehend what I was observing"

"I exited on a new set of hards, and then I arrived at Turn One and unexpectedly appeared two guys dashing across the track"

"I almost collided with one of them, truthfully, it was so dangerous"

Track Safety Questioned

"Evidently there's been a failure in communication somewhere but I've never encountered that before, and I can't recall observing that in the past. It's pretty unacceptable"

"We can't understand how on a ongoing race track safety personnel can be permitted to just run across the track like that. I'm clueless about the cause, I'm certain we'll get some sort of explanation, but this absolutely cannot recur"

Formal Inquiry in Progress

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

"After an occurrence at turn one, track officials was informed that fragments were located on the track at the turning point of that curve" stated the regulatory authority

"During the third lap, safety personnel were notified and made ready to go onto the racing surface and clear the fragments once the entire field had cleared the area"

"The moment it was realized that Lawson had entered the pits, the orders to send personnel were withdrawn and a safety warning flag was raised in that zone"

"We are still investigating what happened after that point"