Sunday’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix ended in truly terrifying circumstances, after a lack of communication in the pit-lane nearly resulted in a truly deadly accident.
The race itself was one of the more uneventful of the 2023 Formula 1 season so far, with all of the drivers having spent the entirety of the race preserving their tyres in order make a one-stop work.
Sergio Perez ultimately claimed his second victory of the season after inheriting the race lead following an early Safety Car, which caught out Max Verstappen.
The Mexican never looked troubled when he made his way to the front, due to tyre preservation having been so important.
Want to work in Formula 1? Browse the latest F1 job vacancies
His second win of the year and his second at the Baku City Circuit saw him reduce Verstappen’s championship lead to just six points, ahead of the upcoming weekend’s Miami Grand Prix.
So whilst the race itself had next to no action, several photographers were almost hit by Esteban Ocon on the final lap, with the Frenchman having managed to slow down just in time.
After starting the race from the pit-lane, Alpine opted to start Ocon on the white-walled Hard tyre, in the hope that there’d be a late red flag or Safety Car.
The Frenchman actually ran just inside the top 10 for the bulk of the race after everyone else had made their one and only stop, with Ocon having not ditched his Hard tyres until the final lap.
However, as Ocon approached the final sector on the penultimate lap, photographers and F1 personnel began to set-up parc ferme, meaning there were people running around in the pit-lane.
It meant when Ocon entered the pit-lane, he had to take avoiding action to miss those running around, with several personnel having jumped out of the way.
Thankfully, nobody was hit and Ocon managed to make his stop; however, the incident could’ve certainly had a very different outcome.
Sky Sports F1 commentator David Croft couldn’t believe what he was seeing, with the commentator having described the situation as “utter shambles of organisation”.
READ: Max Verstappen branded ‘sore loser’
Sky’s pit-lane reported Ted Kravitz was also left stunned, with him having also labelled it as “an absolute shambles”.
“What is this about?! This is a shambles! An absolute shambles!” shouted Kravitz.
“We can see it coming. Alpine can see it coming! What is going on down there?!”