Lewis Hamilton & Co’s Life Put In “Significant Danger” as Ignorant FIA Refuses to Learn From Silverstone Debacle

A race weekend these days aren’t complete until and unless there’s a fluff from the end of the FIA or the organizers. Sometimes the controversy builds over the calls made by the stewards and race director, while sometimes the organization of the whole race comes into question. The one name that has repeatedly come up in both kinds of situations is that of Lewis Hamilton, and the Australian GP was no exception.

Controversy always seems to be on the tail of the Mercedes driver. So, in Australia, not only was the driver heard complaining about the reorder as he was surprised to find Fernando Alonso behind him, but he was the first one to report the fans nearing the track as the final restart took place. Luckily, the last lap was done under a safety car, and things cooled off.

But after the debacle of the Silverstone GP in 2022, where protestors stormed the grid and sat there, this is another incident of FIA and organizational failure. The fans and drivers aren’t particularly happy about it given that it had put everyone’s life in danger. The lessons weren’t learned from the failure and highlighted glaring security gaps.

It was first reported by Lewis Hamilton himself over the radio; as quoted by the Express, he was heard on the radio saying to his engineer, “There’s people on the track, man, some fans have got on.” By that time, Max Verstappen had already sped to his third win of the year when the red flag was briefly raised afterward.

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The Australian Grand Prix Corporation admitted there were “serious” safety and security breaches and has been referred to the World Motor Sport Council by race stewards. Spectators reportedly managed to break through security and make their way onto the track towards the end of the race. This is not the first time the Australian Grand Prix has experienced such an incident. The event was also the scene of a track invasion towards the end of the 2017 event.

Lewis Hamilton lent support to the Silverstone protestors

The British Grand Prix at Silverstone had a chaotic start when Zhou Guanyu crashed on Turn 1, leading to a red flag. As the cars slowed down, six or seven protesters stormed the track near Wellington Straight, sitting in the middle to protest against fossil fuel licensing. Fortunately, marshals quickly removed the protesters, avoiding a potentially dangerous situation.

To this, Lewis Hamilton said, “As we’ve seen today, this is a very dangerous sport. I wasn’t aware of the protests today, and while I’ll always support those standing up for what they believe in, it must be done safely. Please don’t jump onto our race circuits to protest, we don’t want to put you in harms way.”

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Security breaches such as these point fingers at the organizers as well as the FIA and F1 who hand out the permits in the first place. With the authority’s reputation already taking a hit, such incidents should be avoided at all costs.