Williams Racing’s Carlos Sainz has called on the FIA to listen to drivers following Ollie Bearman’s high-speed crash at the 2026 F1 Japanese GP. After qualifying 16th, the Spaniard was left to settle for a 15th-place finish during Sunday’s race.
While the start of the 2026 F1 season has proven challenging for the team—who finished 5th in the Constructors’ Championship—Sainz and Williams have continued to struggle with performance, with the FW48 still understood to be significantly overweight. Although he scored points in Shanghai, Sainz and Williams are still in search of improved results.
Speaking in the print media zone after the race, Sainz expressed his frustration with the FIA’s reluctance to act on driver feedback regarding the safety concerns posed by the dangerous closing speeds under the current regulations.
Calls for FIA to outline improvement plan after Bearman’s crash
Bearman’s crashed involved significant speed, with the young Briton hitting the barriers at Spoon and suffering a 50G impact. The 20 year-old then climbed out of the car limping and needing support. While several drivers had raised this issue during pre-season, Bearman’s crash has now brought it sharply to focus.
“That’s the problem when you listen only to the teams.”, said Sainz.
Explaining why the issue of extreme closing speeds poses significant danger to drivers, the Spaniard said: “I think the racing is ok, because maybe they are having fun watching it on the TV. But from a driver’s standpoint, when you are racing each other, and you realise that there can be 50 kph speed delta, that’s actually not racing.”
“There’s no category in the world where you have this kind of closing speeds, because that’s when big accidents can happen, because it catches you by surprise, you hit them late, it touches you in the car in front.”
The F1 calendar now heads into a month-long break following the cancellation of the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian races. Looking ahead to the next round in Miami, Sainz hopes the FIA will take steps to address the concerns over the closing speeds. Even if immediate changes aren’t possible, he hopes to see improvements implemented in the near future.
“Anyway, I really hope they listen to us, and they focus on the feedback we give them, rather than only listening to the teams. Yeah, they come up with a plan for Miami that improves the situation, and a plan also for the medium-term future of these regulations. Keep improving it, even if you cannot improve everything for Miami, it could be another big step in Miami and then a big step for the next year.”
