The Australian Grand Prix took place this weekend and a fan got hit with a piece of car debris after an accident occurred on track.
Will Sweet was sitting on turn when Kevin Magnussen crashed on track and ran into the barrier. On contact, one of Magnussen’s tyres and car debris went flying. The debris hit Sweet in the arm and he started bleeding with a very deep cut. Sweet’s arm was covering his neck where he would’ve been hit, and said his fiancé would have been hit in the head if it went in her direction.
The thing is, no race officials came to check out the area and the fans. Sweet said the area was surrounded by children and families and no officials came to check.
Australian GP. Source.
The Australian Grand Prix organizers are already under a lot of scrutiny since hundreds of fans invaded the track while cars were still racing. F1 cars travel at an average of 150 miles per hour which is extremely dangerous if regular fans are out on track while racing is still happening. Spectators even reached Niko Hulkenberg’s Haas car as it was parking at the turn 2 exit. This is not only dangerous for fans but also drivers and officials. Videos showed fans climbing trackside barriers, which are over 15 feet high.
Formula 1 stewards even required the Australian Grand Prix Corporation to produce and remediation plan in response to the security and safety failures of the weekend. F1 stewards also asked the FIA to refer the incident to the World Motor Sports Council to see if they will be awarded penalties for the incidences. Incidences like these do not occur often and it is a huge failure on behalf of the Australian Grand Prix Corporation.
There are quite a few PR problems that need to be solved. The first is that the Australian Grand Prix Corporation needs to apologize to Sweet for the debris hitting him and offer to pay medical bills/for injuries that occurred because of the incident. Next the corporation needs to release a statement about what occurred and how they are going to address the security and safety problems in the future and how it will be fixed. They need to have safety trainings and talk to other Grand Prix locations about how to they deal with security and safety standards. The corporation could also work with F1 and the FIA to work on safety and security regulations for the future to improve them for all Grand Prixs going forward. There should also be a general guideline of security and safety measures each Grand Prix has to meet and have F1 and FIA inspectors look over each grand Prixs plan every year about what they are doing to handle the problem.