A Formula 1 fan was left bleeding after being hit by flying debris from a car at Sunday’s Australian Grand Prix.
Will Sweet said he was lucky his arm was covering his neck when the large metal piece belonging to Danish driver Kevin Magnussen’s car struck him during the race.
“Magnussen goes flying down the track and then all of a sudden, something hits me in the arm and a bunch of people start running around, scrambling,” he told 3AW radio on Monday morning.
“It slapped me in the arm and I was just standing there bleeding.
“My arm was covering where my neck would’ve been, but if that had hit my fiancee, it would’ve got her right in the head,” he said.
The 31-year-old was standing on a packed hill just off turn two when Magnussen’s car hit the barriers, sending his tyre and debris flying into the air.
Will Sweet was hit by flying car debris at the grand prix.
“People were scrambling, partly trying to get out of the way and [others] trying to get a hold of the debris,” Sweet said.
Sweet realised how lucky he was after he took a photo and held the debris.
“When I picked up the piece of wheel, someone else managed to let me get it, I realised how big it was and how heavy it was. Part of it was shredded and really sharp, if it hit me in a different angle, it could’ve been horrendous,” he said.
No grand prix officials came to assist Sweet, who said the area was packed, with young children around.
Sweet said officials did not come to see what happened.
“No one even came and looked,” he said. “My fiancee was pretty spooked by it and borderline shell-shocked,” he said.
After the race, medics treated Sweet for the cut on his right forearm.
“Because it was a really dramatic finish, we sort of stood and watched the end of the race … we eventually went to the St John’s ambulance and they patched me up there.”
Sweet said he and his partner watched the replay of Sunday’s incident several times at home.
“Somehow it’s gone up and over [the fence] and it came from quite a height as well, so it went straight up, way over the fence, and managed to land in the crowd, and we were in a really packed hill on the side of corner two,” he said.
In 2001, an Australian track marshall was struck and killed by a flying wheel from a collision at Albert Park, prompting a change to the safety measures.
