- F1 stakeholder meeting on April 9 to address safety fears after Bearman crash.
- Six fixes are on the table, from energy limits to active aero, ahead of Miami.
- Drivers have run out of patience and the FIA knows they need to act now.
F1 rulemakers are heading into one of the most significant meetings of the modern era. On April 9, team technical chiefs, engine manufacturers, and senior figures from the FIA and F1 will all come together under one roof.
They will address the new set of 2026 regulations that have unsettled drivers, divided the paddock, and, after a 50G crash at Suzuka, raised serious questions about safety. The goal is to agree on a set of fixes before the Miami Grand Prix on May 3.
Bearman’s crash brings F1 rule fixes to the top of the agenda
Since the start of pre-season testing in Bahrain, drivers have been relentless in their criticism of the new cars. Max Verstappen, the four-time world champion, has been the sharpest critic.
Lando Norris said the sport had gone from the best cars to the worst in a single regulation change. Fernando Alonso, after a difficult weekend in China, called it the “battery world championship.” The frustration was building, but it stayed in the realm of opinion. Then came Suzuka.
On lap 22 of the Japanese Grand Prix, Haas driver Oliver Bearman was approaching Spoon Curve. He was a second behind Franco Colapinto. Then, suddenly, a massive difference in electrical boost between the two cars closed the gap in an instant.
Bearman swerved at 308km/h, went sideways over the grass, skidded back across the track, through the run-off, and into the barrier. The impact measured 50G.
Speaking to the media after the race, Bearman was direct. “It was a massive overspeed, 50kph, which is a real… It’s a part of these new regulations that I guess we have to get used to,” the 20-year-old said.
“I think we’ve, as a group, warned the FIA what can happen, and this has been a really unfortunate result of a massive delta speed that we’ve never seen before in F1 until these new regulations.”
The 2026 rules require cars to slow and harvest energy at the end of straights. That creates sudden, unpredictable speed differentials between cars.
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella and Norris had already flagged before Suzuka that a major crash was coming. What happened to Bearman confirmed it. The FIA acknowledged the urgency in a statement after the crash, noting the regulations include “adjustable parameters, particularly in relation to energy management, which allow for optimisation based on real-world data.”
The sport had its data.
F1 stakeholders respond with urgency to bring major rule fixes
The April 9 meeting, reported by The Race, carries three headline priorities: safety, qualifying, and the drop in speed at the end of straights when battery power runs out.
That last issue has become a source of deep frustration among drivers. After Japan, Norris put it plainly. “It still hurts your soul seeing your speed dropping so much, 56km/h down the straight,” he said.
According to RacingNews365, several additional meetings are also planned during the April break, focused mainly on the technical details of the regulations. The clock is ticking. Miami is on May 3.
The six solutions in play
Six concrete proposals are on the table, according to The Race.
Increase the power of super clipping
The first is to raise the power available under super clipping, which is when drivers harvest energy while still on full throttle. The current limit sits at 250kW, compared to the 350kW available from lift and coast.
Raising super clipping to 350kW would make it the preferred method of harvesting, cutting reliance on lift and coast and, with it, the dangerous speed gaps.
Reduce energy consumption
The second proposal runs against instinct. Rather than adding power, it would reduce how much energy the cars can deploy, currently capped at 350kW. Less deployment means the battery lasts longer across a lap, smoothing out the speed curve.
The FIA already had teams trial a version of this in Bahrain. One variation would trigger an earlier ramp-down of electrical output, another would lower the speed threshold at which the ramp-down begins, currently set at 340km/h.
Reducing the recharge limits
The third option targets how much energy can be recovered per lap. The maximum in qualifying is 9MJ. At Suzuka, it was already brought down temporarily to 8MJ.
A drop to 7MJ could cost nearly one second in lap times, per sources cited by The Race. A 6MJ cap could more than double that loss, though changes elsewhere could offset some of the difference.
Changes to active aerodynamics
The fourth option is a bigger departure. It would overhaul active aerodynamics. Currently, straight mode, which cuts drag by between 25% and 40%, can only be used in zones defined by the FIA.
The proposal would expand those zones sharply, or remove them entirely, much like DRS was unrestricted in qualifying during its early years. More access to straight mode would reduce drag and let battery energy go further over a lap.
Engine tweaks, deferred to 2027
The fifth idea, a shift in the power split between the combustion engine and the battery, has theoretical appeal but practical limits. Lifting the fuel-flow limit would be the simplest method, but the current engines were designed to work within the existing rules.
Pushing them beyond those limits mid-season could cause reliability failures. This option is more likely to be saved for 2027.
Give more control back to the drivers
The sixth proposal is about giving control back to the drivers. Charles Leclerc’s qualifying lap in China showed the problem clearly. An algorithm quirk in his power unit caused it to misread his throttle input, burning energy in the wrong part of the track.
Leclerc called the situation “a bit silly.” Removing such thresholds would put the driver back in charge of energy management, which is widely seen as essential to restoring qualifying as a proper test of driving rather than software.
What remains off the table
Not every driver concern makes the agenda though. The yo-yo style of racing, which has split opinion among drivers and fans, is not being treated as an emergency. F1 sees the safety, qualifying, and speed-curve problems as the urgent ones. The rest can wait.
Whether April 9 produces agreement is an open question. The stakeholders involved bring different interests, different pressures, and different tolerances for change.
But they are walking into that room with Bearman’s crash still fresh in their minds, and with drivers who have made clear they are out of patience.
