Formula One’s governing body has confirmed they’re looking into footage that showed another near-miss in the pit lane at the Miami Grand Prix. The FIA came under scrutiny in Baku when Esteban Ocon narrowly avoided catastrophe at the end of the race when he came into the pits where a group of people had already gathered.
People had to jump out of the way to avoid Ocon’s fast-moving Alpine with the FIA launching an investigation after the close call. In a measure to try and decrease the chance of that being repeated moving forward, the FIA added new instructions to the post-race procedure for all personnel at the Miami Grand Prix.
But that failed to prevent a similar incident happening in Miami in the early stages of this past weekend’s Grand Prix. Lando Norris was entering the pits on lap five when an official was seen walking in front of the McLaren, only just avoiding a collision.
An FIA spokesperson told the PA news agency: “We are aware of the incident and looking into it with local organisers.” It comes after the FIA also issued a threat to ban anybody who infringed on the pit-lane rules.
The rules read: “Any infringement will result in the removal of passes from the team(s) in question from subsequent events, and potential reporting of the infringing team(s) to the Stewards.” Ocon didn’t appear to hold any ill feeling towards F1’s governing body over the dangerous situation from Baku, but stated before the Miami Grand Prix that he hoped it wouldn’t be repeated.
“The FIA has apologised,” he told Sky Sports News. “They assured us that this is not going to happen anymore. Thank God nothing happened and so all good from now.
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“We are racing at the time. It’s of course normal that there shouldn’t be anyone in the pit lane until after we are racing like that. These things are normally not going to happen, the FIA has assured us that they are making sure they are changing the protocol and making sure there is no one in the pit lane until the end, so I’m confident we will not see that anymore.”
Norris is yet to speak out on the incident, but it’s sure to spark up more debate on pit-lane safety. The McLaren driver had a race to forget in Miami despite hopes being raised of improvements with new upgrades.
Both Norris and Oscar Piastri failed to get out of Q1 and they were unable to have an impact on the race. Piastri ended up finishing 19th with Norris not much better in 17th with McLaren now hoping the European swing can lead to better results.
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