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FORMULA 1
AP PHOTO/TYLER TATE
The stewards of the Texas GP fined the organizers of yesterday’s (20/10) Formula 1 race in Austin €500,000 after they failed to prevent spectators from entering the track while several cars that had just finished had not yet returned to the pits.
Spectators entering the track after the end of the race is common in American racing, but is also generally allowed in Formula 1. However, their early entry, before all the cars have arrived back on the pits and the track has been officially opened by the marshals, it is a serious offense involving security risks.
That was the case at the end of yesterday’s Austin GP, where organizers failed to control the entry of around 200 spectators onto the track while several cars were still on their slow lap after the finish and returning to the pits.
Spectators entered the track from the main grandstand located across from the Circuit of the Americas pits. He didn’t open a gate for them to enter, but they climbed the two-meter high barbed wire themselves, passed a lower fence and then the barrier and found themselves on the center straight of the track.
Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas
AP PHOTO/TYLER TATE
The stewards called representatives of the organizer, US Race Management, as well as representatives of the racetrack, to apologize for the incident after the end of the race. And after listening to their views, they ended up imposing a fine of €500,000, for breaching the Competition Code.
Of this fine, €350,000 is suspended until 31 December 2026, provided there is no further offense of early entry of spectators onto the circuit at FIA races to be held at the Circuit of the Americas. The suspension is justified by the fact that this was the first offense of the organizers of the particular match.
Also, before the end of 2024 the organizers must submit to the FIA a detailed plan outlining the actions they will take to prevent a repeat of the phenomenon of spectators invading the track before it is officially opened to the public.
We remind you that similar phenomena of spectators invading the track before all the cars returned to the pits were observed earlier this year at the Canadian GP, and also last year at the Australian GP. The organizers of the Melbourne race, in fact, this year completely banned the entry of spectators to the track after the end of the GP.
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