Westacott: I hope the job doesn’t get disqualified

Australian podium promoter Andrew Westacott was responsible for organizing the podium for 12 years as the Executive Director of the Australian Grand Prix Corporation (AGPC), and spent a total of 17 years with the company. We wrote that he will be retiring this year, but the end of a glorious career was unclear due to an unpleasant incident with spectators entering the track before the end of the race.

The organizers were accused of breaking the FIA’s international sporting code, the AGPC admitted their guilt by organizing an internal inquiry, the results of which will be published on June 30 – the last day of Westacott’s tenure. The report is then reviewed by the World Motor Sport Council to determine if any sanctions are required. Westacott hopes there will be no sanctions.

Andrew Westacott: “I hope the track doesn’t get disqualified. This shouldn’t happen.

We have everything according to the rules. There are three lines of physical protection against penetration on the track at the autodrome, which are guarded by special people. The track marshals are in constant contact, through their higher sectors they are in contact with the direction of the race. We have 50-60 experts in our security department, we have a dedicated emergency coordination center and all emergency services.

Obviously what happened at the end of the race is unacceptable. There was some confusion at the time, but this confusion is no excuse. It is clear that after the finish of such a brilliant race, which gathered a record crowd, people wanted to hit the track. Unfortunately, some have done it in an unsafe way.

Every year we work to ensure that fans can get onto the track at the end of the straight once all the cars have passed. We developed a very reliable protocol, which was broken this time. And we are now investigating the causes of this clear violation with officials, security providers, engineers and the state police.”