Lando Norris has narrowly avoided turning a horror Miami Grand Prix into a tragedy after man walked across the pit lane as he entered for his scheduled stop.
Coming just a week after photographers descended onto the pit lane in front of Alpine’s Esteban Ocon in Baku, the F1 was faced with another near-miss.
Watch the Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix 2023 Live and ad-break free in racing on Kayo Sports this Monday May 8th 5:30PM AEST. New to Kayo? Start your free trial now >
While last week Ocon had at least a little straight to slow down, it’s a blind corner in Miami and the man crossed the track near the entrance to the pit lane.
On the footage, it was clear Norris adjusted his wheel slightly to the left when he saw the man.
Incredibly, it comes after the FIA published new post-race prodecures, meaning team mechanics can’t moved into Parc Ferme with cooling fans until the last car has taken the chequered flag, while: “Any other personnel or VIPs are not permitted to enter the pit lane until after the last car has taken the chequered flag”.
Infringements will result in the removal of passes from the teams and even reporting the team to the Stewards.
Fans couldn’t believe the were seeing another near-miss just a week after the Baku incident.
Another F1 fan tweeted: “This one is even worse than the one in Baku, mainly due to the distance from the blind spot to where the citizen was walking.”
The Azerbaijan Grand Prix ended in chaos when Ocon, who needed to pit to avoid disqualification having driven the entire race on the one set of tyres, came in to pit on the final lap.
F1 drivers must pit at least once every race and use at least two different tyre compounds.
Photographers had already descended into the pit lane in preparation for the podium presentation.
Luckily, Ocon was able to avoid the people, with Sky Sports pit lane reporter Ted Kravitz calling it “absolute shambles”.
It was another horror day for McLaren with Norris’ race nearly ruined before it began after he was rear-ended on the first corner by AlphaTauri driver Nick De Vries.
After the race, Norris said: “I don’t know what happened. I just got hit. He’s done that a bit lately, so he needs to try braking a little bit earlier, but it didn’t change my day, I wouldn’t say. I don’t know how much damage there was. There was definitely a little bit, but our lack of pace wasn’t because of that. We were just very slow today.”
Norris finished the race in 17th, two places ahead of his Aussie teammate Oscar Piastri in 19th, who was dealing with a major failure in his brake-by-wire system.
While it’s been a nightmarish start to the season for McLaren, the team still remarkably sits fifth in the constructor’s championship, despite only claiming points at the Australian Grand Prix.
After a review of the technical structure at McLaren ordered by team boss Andrea Stella, Norris said he was optimistic the team could find the speed it’s been missing in 2023.
“Definitely the guys and everyone back in the factory seem happier, like more optimistic,” Norris said. “I have even more faith in terms of the new structure and some of the new people we have and things like that.
“Everyone’s a bit more free and willing to try new things and make bigger steps.”