Alex Wurz calls for F1 change after Oliver Bearman 50G crash scare

Alex Wurz has urged Formula 1 to modify the power unit software after Oliver Bearman limped away from a huge 50G crash at the Japanese Grand Prix.

Formula 1 introduced new power regulations this season, with the sport switching to a 50/50 split between combustion and electrical power. Even before the first laps on track, the drivers raised safety concerns.

Alex Wurz urges F1 software changes after Bearman crash

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Battery harvesting and super clipping have become the norm for the drivers, resulting in a significant decrease in speed near the end of the straights. That can lead to a massive delta in closing speeds.

Drivers have warned that it is only a matter of time before there’s a huge crash.

That came at round three of the championship when Bearman came flying up behind Franco Colapinto into Spoon Curve midway through the Japanese Grand Prix.

His closing speed was some 50kph faster than Colapinto was travelling.

Screaming up behind Colapinto, Bearman had to take avoiding action, which put the Haas driver on the grass. He shot across the track in front of Colapinto and through the gravel on the outside of Spoon Curve before hitting the barrier.

The impact was recorded at 50G.

Bearman limped away from his shattered Haas, assisted by two marshals before he was taken to the track’s medical centre for X-rays. He was given the all-clear, having suffered nothing worse than a badly bruised knee.

From Mario Kart’s “Mushroom Boost” to “brake testing”, the cause of Bearman’s crash – the new power units – have been heavily criticised by those in the paddock.

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Grand Prix Drivers’ Association president and former F1 driver Wurz says F1 needs to make changes to prevent another crash.

“For safety reasons,” he told a recent edition of the ‘Lift and Roast’ podcast, “we simply have to ban sudden deployment spikes at top speed.

“That would require a piece of software that is standard across all teams, one that perhaps factors in speed and distance so we just don’t see these situations anymore.

“The danger arises if the speed does not develop linearly, but changes abruptly, as in the case of Bearman.

“Then you’ll have a surprise, and you can’t calculate that because you don’t know what the person in front is doing in terms of energy management.

“That’s where they need to come in to say this should never happen with the software. The software knows I’m running out of energy, I mustn’t let myself get into a kind of super clipping at this speed in this section of the track.”

The Austrian revealed that the drivers’ WhatsApp group was blowing up in the days after Bearman’s crash with the drivers voicing their emotions as well as their solutions.

“In that famous WhatsApp group, which we set up in 2015 or 2016, it’s really going off now, it’s exploding,” he said.

“I’ve rarely seen it so active.

“That group is overflowing with emotions, possible solutions, technical proposals and ideas on how to still convince everyone that the drivers should be listened to. That’s super, and that’s beautiful.

“Of course, I can’t share any of that – I don’t. I’m not crossing the line of my role as GPDA director right now. What is discussed there stays there.

“But the beautiful thing, and my conclusion, is: the drivers are so emotional and purely interested in the product, that politics doesn’t really matter to them.”

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