Terrifying moment F1 officials walk onto track during race | F1 | Sport

Hearts were left in mouths when two marshals were seen on the track midway through the Australian Grand Prix on Sunday. The pair entered the track while cars were racing past to remove a piece of debris that had fallen off Sergio Perez’s wing.

It landed on the side of the track, with a virtual safety card deployed as a result. But few expected the marshals to head out and collect the debris while cars were still zooming past them.

They successfully removed the debris, despite the terrifying scenes, but Sky Sports Formula One pundit Martin Brundle couldn’t hide his horror at the situation. Speaking on the coverage, Brundle said: “You can’t put people out there,’ the ex-McLaren driver said while on commentary. You cannot put people out there.”

It isn’t the first time marshals have got up close and personal with the race, after Liam Lawson came close to hitting an official during last year’s Mexican Grand Prix. Lawson was absolved of all blame by the FIA, who said the fault lay with the marshal instead.

Speaking at the time, the New Zealander said: “It’s pretty unacceptable. We can’t understand how on a live track, marshals can be allowed to just run across the track like that. I have no idea why, I’m sure we’ll get some sort of explanation, but it really can’t happen again.”

Mercedes dominated proceedings at the Australian Grand Prix, with pre-season favourite George Russell taking the win ahead of team-mate Kimi Antonelli. There was a whopping 15 seconds separating Antonelli in second to Charles Leclerc in third, with the debate surrounding the engine regulation changes having reached fever pitch.

Reigning champion Lando Norris is among those to have slammed the new regulations, saying: “It is chaos, and we are going to have a big accident, which is a shame because we are driving and the ones just waiting for something to happen and to go quite horribly wrong and that is not a nice position to be in.

“Depending on what drivers do, you can have closing speeds of 30, 40, 50kph, and when someone hits another driver at that speed, you are going to fly and go over the fence and do a lot of damage to yourself and maybe to others and that is a pretty horrible thing to think about.”