F1: Fan injured by flying debris from Kevin Magnussen’s crash in ‘freak’ incident

Carbon fibre cut spectator’s arm, race organisers confirm
Marc Mayo3 April 2023

Flying debris from Kevin Magnussen’s Haas car led to an injury for a spectator at the F1 Australian Grand Prix.

The Dane crashed late on in Sunday’s Formula One race, hitting the wall and losing his rear-right wheel to prompt one of the afternoon’s three red flags.

While the loose wheel bounced along the track and ultimately caused no further damage, a piece of carbon fibre flew into the air and cut a man’s arm as he watched from the stands, Australian Grand Prix Corporation CEO Andrew Westacott has confirmed.

“We actually coincidentally had one of our engineering staff there who saw it, and anecdotally it would appear that debris carbon fibre from the wheel hub has shot 20 metres or so in the air, shot up, landed down and lacerated a gentleman's arm,” he told reporters.

"Our people were aware of the incident. It looks as if out was a freak one-off, because you can't necessarily have these debris fences going 20 metres in the air.”

Westacott maintained that the necessary safety measures were fully followed at Albert Park.

"The debris fences are consistent in height around the world,” he continued.

“We're compliant in our FIA regulations, but like everything in motorsport, you do debriefs at the end of the event and see what you can do to improve.

"I hope the guy is okay. It's a reminder that safe is paramount when it comes to Formula One."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in