Carlos Sainz has appeared to accuse the FIA of ignoring his and other Formula 1 drivers’ concerns around safety, with an angry assessment of a huge crash during the Japanese Grand Prix.
The race at the Suzuka circuit, which was won by Andrea Kimi Antonelli, saw a Safety Car on the 22nd lap after a major shunt from Haas driver Oliver Bearman.
On apporaching the notorious Spoon Curve at full racing speed, the Englishman encountered a slow Franco Colapinto at a speed difference thought to be around 50kph.
Bearman swerved to avoid the Argentinian’s Alpine, leaving him a passenger as he tumbled backwards into the tyre wall, clocked at 50G upon impact.
The ferocity of the shunt saw Bearman limping out of his car in pain, and was immediately sent to the medical centre, where mercifully, upon examination, was cleared of any serious injury.
Bearman and Colapinto’s incident has sparked some debate about the dangers facing drivers in this context, with slow cars in front recharging their batteries, causing a speed difference.
The FIA single-seater director, Nikolas Tombazis, recently revealed that the sport’s governing body has “aces up our sleeves” when it comes to tweaks of the controversial new regulations in case of necessity.
And Sainz, speaking to Sky Sports F1 after the race, stated hope that a solution will be found between now and the next round in Miami, in just over 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 that we saw today, we’ve been warning them about this kind of thing happening,” the Spaniard said.
“With these kinds of closing speeds, and this kind of accident was 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 going racing.
“I was so surprised when they said: ‘No, we will sort qualifying answers, leave the racing alone because it is exciting’, because as drivers, we’ve been extremely vocal that the problem is not only qualifying, it is also racing.
“We’ve been warning that this kind of accident was always going to happen, and we were lucky there was an escape road. Now, imagine going to Baku, or Singapore, or Vegas and having these kinds of closing speeds and crashes next to walls.”
Here’s the moment Bearman went into the barriers at Spoon #F1 #JapaneseGP pic.twitter.com/XmurXApWkp
— Formula 1 (@F1) March 29, 2026
Carlos Sainz: ‘The racing is not OK’
Sainz, a director of the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association [GPDA] since last season, is a front-facing figure on matters between the drivers and the sport as a whole.
And the Williams driver revealed that the drivers’ union sent a stark warning to the FIA previously about the possibility of such accidents occurring, reasoning that crash of a similar magnitude to Bearman’s could have worse consequences on a different profile of circuit.
“As the GPDA, we’ve warned the FIA that these accidents are going to happen with these regulations, and we need to change something soon if we don’t want them to happen,” he said.
“It was 50G, my accident in Russia 2015 was 46G, so just imagine what kind of crash you would have in Vegas or Baku.
“I hope it serves as an example and they listen to the drivers and not so much the teams. Some people said that the racing was OK, because the racing is not OK.”
Sainz has often conveyed the mentality of an ‘old school’ racer, and his lack of appetite for these new rules is evident, along with those of other key figures such as four-time World Champion Max Verstappen and the reigning World Champion Lando Norris.
If the GPDA meet ahead of the Miami Grand Prix, then the likes of Tombazis may be well-placed to await a frank and fraught conversation with the drivers.
READ MORE – Franco Colapinto defends role in ‘really dangerous’ Oliver Bearman F1 shunt