(Motorsports news) The Italian Grand Prix paddock was packed all weekend with celebrities and invited visitors because it was the final European event of the 2023 season. The amount of paddock guests, who were among the 304,000 spectators for the Monza weekend, is a sign of how well-liked Formula One has grown.

However, it has also made it much more difficult for teams and drivers to move around their workspace. It is observed that technicians frequently struggled to move equipment around due to the volume of people in their path.

The intrusions soon spread to the teams’ hospitality apartments, where Alpine’s Pierre Gasly became frightened when unknown individuals knocked on the door of his room. Although the Frenchman claims to love the attention the drivers receive from the crowd, Gasly urged fans to show more respect and give the teams more room to perform their duties.

“I like fans, and I always enjoy stopping by and spending time with them. However, it’s definitely our working environment,” Gasly said in response to a question from Motorsport.com about how crowded the paddock appeared. Since it moves minute by minute and is undoubtedly one of the busiest pitlanes, it can be challenging at times to navigate and ensure that we arrive on time for our responsibilities.

It’s fun, but occasionally you even hear knocking within the hospitality, and you wonder how they got there. Therefore, “people need to give us the room we need to work effectively.” The problem of spectator access has already come up because to issues with crowding at the Mexican Grand Prix the year before.

While walking through the paddock in Mexico, Pierre Gasly saw that his rucksack had been unzipped. Lando Norris of McLaren was one of many drivers that demanded more respect at the time. He added in Mexico, which will once again host F1 next month, “I would say there’s not as many other sports where fans can get maybe quite as close to the athletes now.”

“However, they just seem more respectful in a lot of the other sports. They must exhibit that [respect] more frequently. It’s really that easy.

Also read: Ferrari: Monza F1 race was still “achievement” despite Red Bull’s win