Second F1 pitlane near-miss in a week as Norris avoids hitting pedestrian

An individual, believed to be a local marshal, was seen crossing the pit lane just as McLaren’s Lando Norris was coming in to serve an early stop on lap five of Sunday’s 57-lap race in Miami.  

Although Norris did not have to take any action to avoid hitting the man, on-board cameras from the Briton’s car showed just how close F1 came to a potential disaster. 

A clip of the near-miss was originally uploaded to the Sky Sports F1 website but it has since been removed. 

An FIA spokesperson confirmed F1’s governing body is “aware of the incident and looking into it with the local organisers”. 

De FIA had nieuwe regels ingesteld nadat Ocon vorige week bijna een hoop mensen omver reed in de pitlane in de laatste ronde. Lando Norris vandaag : pic.twitter.com/korF46P4qE

— Rob van Gameren (@VanGamerenF1) May 7, 2023

It came just a week after Alpine’s Esteban Ocon narrowly avoided hitting dozens of F1 personnel who were crossing the pit-lane entrance at the end of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. 

Ocon dived into the pitlane on the final lap of the Baku race to serve his mandatory pit stop just as a group of F1 personnel and photographers were at the entrance. 

“It was quite close. I had to lift off, I had to back off, so I would not have liked to have been the ones in the middle there,” Ocon explained. 

"If I miss the braking point, it is a big disaster, so that is a crazy moment.”

The FIA responded to the incident by outlining new protocols designed to avoid a similar dangerous situation unfolding in the future. 

The FIA noted: “Team mechanics are not permitted to move from their garages to the parc ferme with cooling fans in anticipation of their cars stopping at the end of the race until after the last car has taken the chequered flag.

"Any other personnel or VIPs are not permitted to enter the pit lane until after the last car has taken the chequered flag.

"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."