Facing death? You’d have to be really stupid to sit on the track during an F1 race, says Norris of protesters

British police have warned ahead of the British Grand Prix that protesters are planning to disrupt the tenth event of the season. However, neither the police nor the International Automobile Federation (FIA) have come up with anything concrete. So the protesters took to the track at the start of the race. Understandably, their action subsequently provoked a number of negative reactions.

Around 400,000 people attended the British Grand Prix throughout the race weekend. Sunday’s race itself was watched by around 150,000 fans at Silverstone.

However, police there had already warned before Sunday’s action that protesters were planning to disrupt the tenth race of the season. And so they did, with several people taking to the track at the start of the race despite the beefed-up security forces.

These were protesters, or rather climate activists from the group Just Stop Oil. As you can see in the above Twitter post, the police arrested seven people immediately after entering the race track.

Notably, this happened after the red flags had already been raised on the first lap of the British Grand Prix, when a horrific crash was suffered by Chinese pilot Guangyu Zhou. Even so, it was a dangerous moment, because the monoblocs have to complete a full lap to get back to the pits.

And even though the rules state that all drivers have to reduce their race speed significantly under red flag conditions, they are still travelling at around 130 kilometres per hour. Enough to cause a tragedy in the train of riders.

These activists have specifically targeted an area of the circuit called the Wellington Straight. In the attached twitter post below, you can see a picture of the actual incursion for yourself.

Afterwards, not only a number of drivers, but many performers from the world of Formula One reacted to the event. Perhaps the most honest response came from McLaren driver Lando Norris.

“If you’re really stupid enough to enter a race track with F1 cars, it’s scary. Everybody is entitled to their opinion, but you’re also putting us at risk of getting involved in something we would never want to be involved in,” Norris said at the post-race press conference.

There is a similar sentiment throughout the starting field. Only Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel supported the activists, although they condemned the manner of their protest.

According to the seven-time world champion, these people are fighting for our planet and we need more of them. But the Formula 1 world has agreed on one thing – if the activists are going to demonstrate at any event, they should consider the safety of the whole process. Otherwise, it is counterproductive at the very least.

Sources: F1, Northants Police, Motorsport