Ollie Bearman's 50G impact at Suzuka has forced Formula 1's closing-speed crisis out into the open, with the grid's drivers now publicly confronting the FIA over what they describe as the most dangerous by-product of the 2026 power unit regulations.
Bearman's Haas struck the back of Franco Colapinto's slower Alpine — which was harvesting energy — at a speed differential large enough to register a 50G load on his crash recorder. The British rookie escaped serious injury, but only just. On P1 with Matt & Tommy, the host reflected the paddock's mood: "It's a crazy thing to say that a 50g crash where Ollie Bearman's clearly uh hurt himself, thankfully not really badly, is like a lucky escape, but it is a lucky escape cuz it could have been far far worse."
Carlos Sainz, one of the most senior voices on the grid, has emerged as the sharpest critic of the regulatory response. Speaking to THE RACE, the Williams driver argued that the governing body has been hearing the wrong voices. "That's the problem when you listen only to the teams," Sainz said. "They think the racing is okay because maybe they're having fun watching it on TV. The drivers have been extremely vocal — the problem is the racing too."
For Oscar Piastri, the Bearman incident was not a freak outlier but the predictable consequence of a regulation set the grid has feared since conception. The McLaren driver described a near-miss from his own Suzuka weekend. "I had a pretty close call in free practice with Nico, because he caught me about three times as quick as I expected on the straight and we were both at full throttle," Piastri said. "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."
Kimi Antonelli, who won the race, confirmed that the FIA is engaged — but framed the timeline as the immediate problem. "Yeah, it's a big thing for sure," the Mercedes driver said. "FIA is already looking into how to improve for Miami, both in qualifying and race. Let's see what's going to happen, but it's very tricky to be fair."
Charles Leclerc offered a more philosophical read, acknowledging the risk while insisting the racing itself is worth it. "With this car, surely we need to race differently, and there's no doubt about that," the Ferrari driver said. "Moving or changing direction whenever you are super clipping — that's what creates some quite dangerous scenarios. I don't know if I'm the only one, I don't think I'm the only one speaking with other drivers, but it might be half half. But I actually enjoy those cars for the racing bit."
Pundits, however, are less optimistic that a fix exists within the current framework. Matt of P1 went as far as to argue that the 2026 package is beyond rescue: the host suggested that the regulations are fundamentally flawed, that no band-aid can patch them, and that the rule-makers made the wrong decision in chasing manufacturer investment at the expense of racing quality. He went on to argue the only viable path to safer racing is to reduce the battery's importance in the power unit, even at the cost of outright lap time — because when the trade-off is driver safety, there is only one answer.
The FIA's immediate priority, according to paddock sources, is qualifying-session energy deployment ahead of the Miami Grand Prix. Whether that goes far enough to satisfy a driver cohort now openly questioning whether the sport has been built around their safety — or around its sponsors' marketing requirements — will be the defining political question of the 2026 season.
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*Originally published on [Formula One News](https://newsformula.one/article/drivers-demand-fia-fix-closing-speeds-bearman-crash-suzuka). Visit for full coverage.*