F1 fans were left shocked after a ferry company mistakenly played an “adult film” after the Mexico City Grand Prix.
The incident occurred on Sunday, October 26, the day of the Mexico City Grand Prix, on a ferry bound for New Haven from Dieppe, France, at around 4pm.
The TVs in the lounge were set to show the Grand Prix for passengers during delays due to technical problems on the ferry.
One passenger told The Argus that children were “screaming” and people were left “really unhappy”.
“I went to the main reception to inform them that I was getting off the train and to transfer them from car passengers to foot passengers, when all of a sudden children started running out of the reclining lounge area screaming,” said the woman, who asked not to be named.
“Some parents came out and asked the guy who worked there to sort out the TV. They said, ‘There’s hardcore porn on the TV.’
“I couldn’t see it, but I could hear it. Some parents explained to their children that not all adults do that. It was a bit upsetting.
“I don’t know how it got there. The ferry crossing was chaos. People were really unhappy.”
Eventually the TV was turned off by the staff.
The ferry company in question, DFDS, has apologized for the incident.
A spokesperson for the airline said: “During the delay, a group of passengers asked if they could watch the Formula 1 Grand Prix on the television in the onboard lounge.”
“Unfortunately, the flight attendants were unaware that once this program ended, the next episode to be shown was an adult film. The channel was changed immediately after passengers alerted the flight attendants to the content.”
“Additionally, this channel has been removed from the ship’s list of available stations to prevent this from happening again. We deeply regret the understandable upset and anger this has caused to the families on board who unfortunately watched this content.”
McLaren’s Lando Norris won the Mexico City Grand Prix, taking back the championship lead from teammate and title rival Oscar Piastri.