Carlos Sainz calls for urgent rule changes after Oliver Bearman Suzuka crash scare

Carlos Sainz has said he’s eager to see regulation changes made to prevent accidents such as the one that befell Oliver Bearman at Suzuka.

The Williams driver has warned since the pre-season that the new regulations would likely trigger a big accident due to dramatic speed differentials, and that prediction became reality with a scary crash for Ollie Bearman at Suzuka on Sunday.

Carlos Sainz urges FIA action after Oliver Bearman crash

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Bearman was in energy deployment mode as he approached the Spoon corner midway through Sunday’s race in Japan, closing in on the Alpine of Franco Colapinto.

The Argentine driver slowed dramatically on the racing line as he began harvesting energy, with this drop in pace being caused by the loss of electrical output rather than a voluntary action from the driver.

But Bearman was caught out by the closing speed, as he speared off into the grass and lost control. He slid sideways across the track in front of Colapinto, and hit the barriers sideways in a terrifying 50G impact that left him hobbling out of the car.

He was taken to the Medical Centre for precautionary checks but, aside from being worse for wear, had fortunately escaped serious injury.

It was an eye-opening example of the type of crash that several drivers have been warning about since the pre-season tests revealed the extreme nature of what the drivers encounter when harvesting energy, with one of the most vocal being Carlos Sainz.

The Spaniard is a director of the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association [GPDA], and was particularly matter-of-fact about saying he’s “excited to see what FOM and the FIA come up with” in terms of regulatory change for the Miami Grand Prix in a month’s time.

“I am hopeful that we will come up with something a bit better for Miami, given the fact that the accident with Ollie today, we’ve been warning them about this happening with these kinds of closing speeds,” he told Sky F1.

“These kinds of accidents were always going to happen, and I’m not very happy with what we’ve had up until now. Hopefully, we come up with a better solution that doesn’t create these massive closing speeds and a safer way of racing.”

An initial plan to evaluate tweaks after the Chinese Grand Prix was pushed out to have a meeting after the Japanese Grand Prix instead, with revisions only being made by way of a maximum energy harvesting reduction for qualifying at Suzuka.

This, Sainz said, is not enough of a response to what he sees as being an issue of imperative importance for the safety of the sport.

“I was so surprised when they said, ‘No, we will sort out qualifying and leave the racing alone, because it’s exciting’,” he said.

“As drivers, we’ve been extremely vocal that the problem is not only qualifying, but it’s also racing. We’ve been warning that this kind of accident was always going to happen.

“Here, we were lucky that there was an escape road. Now imagine going to Baku, or going to Singapore, or going to Vegas, and having these kinds of closing speeds and crashes next to the walls.

“We, as GPDA, have warned the FIA that these accidents are going to happen a lot with this set of regulations, and we need to change something soon, if we don’t want them to happen.

“It was 50G, I heard, just imagine what kind of crash you could have in Vegas, Baku, etc.

“I hope it serves as an example, and the teams listen to the drivers, and not so much to the teams and some people who said the racing was okay, because the racing is not okay.”

More on the Japanese Grand Prix

Antonelli wins in Japan after huge crash for Bearman brings out Safety Car

Full race results: Safety Car drama reshapes Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka

Oscar Piastri, who revealed he’d almost been involved in an accident during practice on Friday with Nico Hulkenberg in a similar scenario as he spoke about Bearman’s crash in the post-race press conference, said it’s clear changes are needed.

“We’ve spoken about that [crash] being a possibility since these cars were conceptualised. It’s what we’re stuck with, with the power units; there’s no easy way of getting around it,” he said.

“From what I saw, there was no flashing light from Colapinto, so I don’t even think he was superclipping either, which is obviously a bit of a concern.

“I had a pretty close call in free practice with Nico [Hulkenberg], because he caught me about three times as quickly as I expected on the straight, and we were both at full throttle.

“I think there’s clearly an element of learning for us as drivers. Where the accident happened, it’s not a place where you expect someone to come from so far behind and have such a big speed difference.

“And whilst we’re learning that, unfortunately, things like this are probably going to happen, which is a shame, but I think we understand, as a sport, there’s a lot of things we need to tweak, a lot of things we need to change, especially on safety grounds there’s some things that need to be looked into pretty quickly.”

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