The FIA is investigating an incident from the Spanish GP that also involved Neymar. Formula 1 likely to restrict celebrity access

The Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) will look into an incident that happened before the start of the Spanish Grand Prix. In fact, there were many guests on the track during the opening of the opening lap, including Brazilian star Neymar. The rules are likely to be amended.

In preparation for F1, Formula E, World Endurance Championship (WEC) and other events, celebrities or invited guests and representatives of the international media are allowed to enter the grid in limited numbers, along with officials of the event and team personnel.

This means that too many people will be on the grid at any one time. However, when the monoblocs go into the warm-up lap followed by the start of the race, everyone must leave the grid for safety reasons.

But that didn’t happen in the Spanish Grand Prix, for example. As the Motorsport server has already reported, the International Automobile Federation (FIA) will now look into the incident that took place at the Catalan circuit and will probably change the rules.

One of the VIP guests in Spain was Neymar. Specifically, what happened was that the visitors, along with the Brazilian football star, were still on the edge of the grass on the main or starting straight. And that was just as the formula was going into the lead lap.

This put Neymar and co. in a potentially dangerous situation. Immediately after this incident, the organisers were called to the stewards. As a result of the investigation, guests and celebrities should be restricted from the starting grid.

The race promoter should therefore submit a report on this incident before the end of June, but we will have to wait for the FIA’s official statement on the final outcome in any case. But as Czech F1 commentator Tomáš Richtr has already suggested, the question is how serious this situation really is.

Safety is priority number 1, says FIA president

“We must learn from the incident during the Spanish GP. It is the FIA’s duty to ensure a safe environment for everyone. Safety in motorsport is the top priority of the Federation,” said Mohammed Ben Sulayem.

“Stefano Domenicali (F1 chief, ed.) has assured the FIA that measures have been taken to prevent a repeat of the incident,” the FIA president added.

He concluded by adding that this is a problem that does not concern F1. In his experience, there are too many people on the grid in some races, even in the Formula E or WEC series.

Sources: F1, FIA, Motorsport, Twitter