F1 legend Martin Brundle claims driver safety is 'fourth priority' for FIA

Martin Brundle speaks into a Sky Sports microphone — Photo: © IMAGO

FIA

Martin Brundle claims driver safety is 'fourth priority' for FIA

Oliver Bearman's crash has led to lots of discussion

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Saturday 4 April 2026 10:59

F1 legend Martin Brundle has suggested that drivers are 'fourth in line' when it comes to the FIA's priorities in the sport.

Driver safety is a big topic of conversation at the moment, following Oliver Bearman's crash at the Japanese Grand Prix which saw the young Brit experience a 50G impact into the barriers.

Bearman's Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu blamed the incident on enhanced closing speeds in F1 following the 2026 regulations overhaul, while Williams driver Carlos Sainz slammed the sport in the aftermath of the incident for not listening to drivers' concerns.

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Bearman appeared to be caught out by how quickly his car caught up to the back of Alpine's Franco Colapinto, whose car was harvesting energy at a usually high-speed section of the track.

In order to avoid Colapinto, Bearman swerved onto the grass, but this caused his car to spiral out of control and into the barriers.

The 20-year-old was seen limping when getting out of his wrecked car, but a medical update put out by Haas later on Sunday confirmed that he had not suffered any fractures and had been cleared by the medical centre.

Now, Brundle has had his say on the incident, hinting that drivers' concerns needed to be taken more seriously by the FIA.

"It is a big problem for the FIA," he told the F1 Show. "The safety of the drivers is of course sacrosanct, but I think they are only fourth in line, in terms of priority. The top priority is the fans because they're paying to be there. They haven't bought into any element of risk and they have to be protected.

"Next up is the marshals, the corner workers. Because they're not being paid to be there, but they assume an element of risk because they're track side.

"Next up for me are the pit stop crew in terms of priorities. And finally, the drivers. The cars are pretty safe.

"Everybody's health is and safety is sacrosanct, but the FIA will now have to make a change for Miami because the drivers have voiced this. It's very much out there. I would be pretty certain they've put that in writing through the Grand Prix Driver Association as well.

"So, if a car flies into the crowd now and they haven't done something, shown some due diligence on this, then the FIA will be in for the high jump."

Sainz's FIA rant in full

Brundle is not the only F1 figure to have come out in support of drivers in the last week, with Sainz imploring the FIA to listen to the drivers ahead of the Miami Grand Prix in May.

F1's governing body are set to meet on April 9 to discuss what changes can be made to the current regulations, both to improve driver safety and to address concerns about the enjoyment of the sport, with it being reported that Max Verstappen is considering retirement.

Sainz is a director of the Grand Prix Drivers' Association (GPDA), an organisation which seeks to look after driver interests regarding safety, regulations, and sporting matters.

"I’m excited to see what FOM and FIA come up for the new regulations," Sainz told Sky Sports F1's Rachel Brookes at the Japanese GP. "I am hopeful they will come up something a bit better for Miami.

"Given the fact that the accident with Ollie that we saw today, we’ve been warning them about this kind of thing happening, this kind of closing speeds and these kind of accidents were always going to happen.

"I’m not very happy with what we’ve had up until now and 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 out qualifying and leave the racing alone because it’s exciting. As drivers, we’ve been extremely vocal that the problem is not only qualifying, it’s also racing.

"We’ve been warning that this kind of accident was always going to happen. Here we were lucky there was an escape road. Now imagine going to Baku or going to Singapore or going to Vegas and having these kind of closing speeds and crashes next to the walls.

"We, as the GPDA, we’ve warned the FIA these actions 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, it’s higher than my crash in Russia in 2015, I was 46G. Just imagine what kind of crash you could have in a Vegas, Baku et cetera. I hope it serves as an example and the teams listen to the drivers and not so much to the teams and people that said the racing was okay, because the racing is not okay."

Written by

Sam Cook - Digital Journalist

Sam Cook is a talented young sports journalist and social media professional who now specialises in Formula 1, having previously worked as a football journalist and a local news reporter for a variety of different brands.

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F1 FIA Japanese Grand Prix Martin Brundle Ollie Bearman