{"id":280689,"date":"2025-04-13T03:01:14","date_gmt":"2025-04-13T03:01:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/13\/track-incursion-by-australian-gp-fans-sparks-investigation\/"},"modified":"2025-04-13T03:01:15","modified_gmt":"2025-04-13T03:01:15","slug":"track-incursion-by-australian-gp-fans-sparks-investigation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/13\/track-incursion-by-australian-gp-fans-sparks-investigation\/","title":{"rendered":"Track incursion by Australian GP fans sparks investigation"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Australian Grand Prix organizers have launched an investigation to determine how a group of fans managed to break through security and get dangerously close to Formula One cars before the chaotic race that featured three red flags had ended.<\/p>\n

Australian Grand Prix Corp. chief executive Andrew Westacott on Monday said the incursion onto the Albert Park circuit before the checkered flag could have resulted in serious injuries.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThere\u2019s a controlled allowance of people to come onto the track after the race has concluded and after the safety car passes,\u201d Westacott told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. \u201cSpectators had broken one of the lines, we don\u2019t know how that\u2019s occurred just yet.<\/p>\n

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\u201cMotorsport is dangerous \u2026 it could have been horrific.\u201d Only 12 of the 20 starters finished the race, with Red Bull\u2019s Max Verstappen winning his first Australian GP title after a late rolling start behind a safety car.<\/p>\n

An event record 444,631 spectators attended the Australian GP over four days, including 131,124 on Sunday. Vision of fans climbing high on safety fences and squeezing through a gap in the barricades to get onto the track emerged in the aftermath of the race.<\/p>\n

Race promotors faced the stewards on Sunday night and admitted to a charge of failing to take adequate safety and security measures.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of this presented significant danger to the spectators; race officials and the drivers,\u201d stewards said in a statement.<\/p>\n

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The Australian Grand Prix Corp. pledged to undertake comprehensive reviews, including with Victoria state police, and report back to FIA, the sport\u2019s world governing body, by June 30. The incident was also referred to the FIA World Motor Sports Council for further investigation to determine what penalties will apply.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got a lot of CCTV and we\u2019ve got a huge amount of footage we\u2019re going to have to pour through over the next couple of weeks,\u201d Westacott said. \u201cNobody does anything malicious at motorsport, it\u2019s an unbelievably well-behaved crowd but they, I think, had a degree of confusion. We don\u2019t know how they got into the area without the right level of authority.\u201d Westacott described it as an \u201cuncontrolled ingress of people\u201d and said they breached a \u201cvery robust protocol.\u201d He said he hoped the track incursion didn\u2019t lead to a ban on fans being allowed onto the track, in a controlled manner, after future races are completed. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n