British F1 fan ‘lucky’ to avoid ‘horrendous’ injury after being struck by debris

In an interview with the PA news agency, Will Sweet, 31, said he was fortunate to avoid a “horrendous” injury and called on Formula One and its governing body, the FIA, to make sure it does not happen again.

Sweet, who is from Essex but now lives in Australia, was standing at the second corner of Melbourne’s temporary Albert Park street circuit when Kevin Magnussen crashed into the wall on lap 54 of 58.

Magnussen’s right-rear tyre flew off his Haas and bounced along the race track, while a large piece of wheel rim from the Dane’s car launched 20 metres into the air, over the catch-fencing, before lacerating Sweet’s right arm.

Describing the incredible sequence of events, Sweet said: “I saw a puff of smoke and was following Magnussen’s car along the track and not following where he hit the wall and then suddenly a piece of debris came up flying over the fence and hit me on the arm.

“I was looking at my arm, not really sure what was going on and didn’t realise I had been hit by a piece of debris. I thought I had been hit by a person.

“But people behind me were scrambling around, fighting over who gets this piece of wheel and I’m like ‘what’s that?’ We pieced it together and I realised, ‘holy s***, that’s just hit me in the arm’.

“My forearm was raised because I was holding a tiny FM radio to my ear, but if my arm hadn’t been there, I could have been hit in the neck. It could have hit my fiancee standing next to me on the head.

“I was also lucky not to have been hit by the very sharp end of the debris because that would have gone straight in. The debris was very sharp and very warm. It could have been a lot worse. It could have been horrendous.

“There were a bunch of kids behind me, too, and they were fortunate that their dad was looking in the right direction and pulled them out of the way of danger. If I wasn’t there, and it hit them, it would have been bad.”

The race was suspended for 15 minutes following Magnussen’s shunt before a third red flag followed and led to a 33-minute delay in the race which was eventually won by Max Verstappen. Lewis Hamilton finished second.

Sweet continued: “It was such an exciting part of the race that I wanted to watch the end so a group of mums behind me had some anti-septic cream and a bunch of plasters on them and they patched me up.

“But after the one-lap restart we realised there wasn’t going to be much of a race so I headed over to the medical tent.

“The paramedics were a bit bemused and didn’t believe me when I said I had been hit by debris because I just had some tissues and a plaster on my arm, but then they peeled it back. They cleaned up the injury with some alcohol and told me I might need a tetanus jab if it gets red or sore.”