30/04/2023
NEWS STORY
Following today's incident in the final moments of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, the FIA has promised to take "immediate steps" in order to avoid a repeat.
As Sergio Perez was on his way to taking the chequered flag, members of the media and team personnel were released into the parc fermé area in order to prepare for the podium ceremony.
However, Esteban Ocon was still to make his pit compulaory pit stop having used the same set of hards for the previous 50 laps.
Opting to stop on the final lap, the Alpine driver was confronted with a pitlane entrance packed with members of the media and team personnel. Thankfully however, nobody was injured.
As a result representatives of the FIA responsible for the parc fermé area at pit entry were required to report to the stewards, as the FIA essentially investigated itself.
The stewards heard from the FIA representatives and determined that they took steps to set up the parc fermé area and also permitted media and other personnel to gather in the start of the pit lane and the pit wall during the last lap of the race, while the pit lane was open and before the final pit stop of Ocon.
It was noted that it was not unusual for the representatives to allow such persons into the pit lane just before the end of the race, in the usual course of preparation for parc fermé and the podium ceremony.
However, in this case, there was one driver that had to pit on the last lap and this created a very dangerous situation for those that were in the pit lane at the time.
"We considered that it was fortunate that there were no serious consequences on account of what happened today," said the stewards. "We stressed that the requirements of ensuring a safe and orderly event are paramount. This was acknowledged by the FIA team.
"We walked through the relevant procedures and protocol with the FIA representatives in detail and required them to take immediate steps to reconsider these procedures and protocols with the relevant stakeholders (including FOM, the teams and the FIA) to ensure that this situation does not occur again.
"The FIA representatives expressed their regret at what happened and assured us that they would do so in time for the next event."
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