F1 News: "Really scary and intimidating!" Silverstone Under Scrutiny As Security Staff Cross The Line

The British Grand Prix weekend came to a close on Sunday 9 July when Max Verstappen took the top spot on the podium followed by Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton who finished second and third, respectively.

The iconic race weekend left fans excited about the latest McLaren upgrades which saw them celebrate P2 and P4, as well as seven-time champion Hamilton getting on the podium. However, as the fans were leaving the track, some shared to social media along with other F1 insiders, that some of the security were being verbally abusive.

In an exclusive interview, Alex Harrington spoke to motorsport content creator Last Lap Lucy who experienced some of this at the iconic event at Silverstone.

Lucy explained that, thankfully, overall her experience of the British Grand Prix was still amazing despite the incident. She commented:

"So, overall I had a really, really fantastic time at Silverstone. It was my first ever time doing the full Grand Prix weekend and my goodness me, what an experience it was! It was genuinely such a dream come true."

Moving on to the organisation of the event, Lucy wanted to make it clear that she felt everything was really well organised and the majority of the staff were very friendly and wanted to make it a special time for the fans, it was just a select few that were letting the event down.

After watching the podium celebrations and some interviews it the pits with Channel 4 and Sky Sports F1, Lucy explained that:

"A big line of security guards starts coming and there all there in their big high-vis yellow jackets.

"We obviously listen to them because we need to get moving and they've got a job to do and I fully understand they need the track cleared, I think that's very fair enough.

"But it looked amazing seeing the track completely empty on the Hamilton straight, so I was like 'I really want a picture of that'.

"There was a security guard who was right by me, I turned back to him while walking, I was still walking while I talked to him, and I said, 'would it be alright if I just take a photo just behind you?'

"He said, 'no you can't do that, we have to keep everyone front of us'. Fair enough. So I said, 'would it be ok if you just move your heads slightly to the side so I can get the photo'."

Lucy explained that two guards had agreed and leaned slightly to allow her to take the photo quickly. However, another guard from much further away spots her taking the photo and comes over.

"He starts immediately shouting and swearing at me, telling me to move. I'm not going to use the same language he used, there were a lot of F words in there, telling me to move.

"So I immediately panic because I'm not trying to cause any trouble here. I frantically start explaining to him that I was taking a photo and these guys had said it was okay.

"He said, 'I don't care, move!' Again, whilst swearing. It really shocked me because I was very clearly cooperating and listening to them and moving.

"He just kept swearing at me so I just said to him back, because I felt he was being very unfair, so I said, 'can you please stop swearing at me'. Then he said that he would swear as much as he f-ing wanted to.

"I just immediately started crying [when I got back to my friends] because I was so shaken by what had just happened. I really don't like being shouted at so it was all quite stressful.

"Especially with me being so small, this big burly guy could pick me up with one hand probably, so it was really intimidating."

Lucy went on to say that when she got talking to other people, they had said they all had really similar experiences with the security guards.

We have contacted Silverstone for a comment, to which a spokesperson has responded:

"Obviously this is concerning and we need to investigate further as we do take these issues very seriously."

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