F1 | For now, the FIA ​​will not intervene in accidents caused by bumps

The crashes of Lando Norris in the Las Vegas Grand Prix and Carlos Sainz in practice for the Abu Dhabi GP were both caused by the way the cars bounced over the bumps on the track.

The current generation of ground effect F1 cars are particularly sensitive to bumps, because performance is better when traveling very close to the ground, and they are typically configured with very stiff suspension.

However, despite the crashes of Norris and Sainz, and despite the teams clearly pushing themselves to the limit in trying to keep the cars as low as possible, the FIA ​​believes the issue is not so concerning that it needs to intervene for safety reasons.

The FIA's head of single-seater matters, Nikolas Tombazis, says that ideally it would be better if the cars ran with higher settings, but that there are also limits where the governing body should not interfere for now.

When asked whether the speed bumps are a concern if they continue to cause accidents, Tombazis replied: “We need to make sure that the circuits, in general, avoid features that can cause accidents.”

“It's a fine line between the possibility that the circuit will solve some problems and the possibility that the teams will have to raise the car a little more. Obviously we will try to fix these areas of the circuits.”

“Are the cars too low? Yes, we would have preferred them to be a little higher. But the intrinsic characteristic of a ground effect car is that it tends to have more performance when lowered. So it's something I don't think can be avoided easily”.

Standard skates

The need to race cars very close to the ground for performance reasons has created other problems for teams this year, as well as increasing the chances of accidents.

The disqualification of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc from the US GP, because the boards under the floor had worn too much, demonstrated how critical the height of the cars can be. Furthermore, it highlighted the fact that it is very time-consuming for the FIA ​​to check all the car tables after each session, so some cars can slip through the cracks.

There has been talk in the past about the possibility of introducing standard boards and skates to speed up this process, although teams have always resisted. However, the issue will likely be put back on the agenda for the next regulatory cycle starting in 2026.

Tombazis added: “Sometimes we want to do things, but we still have to go through the governance and the teams have to vote for it, and we don't have enough support. So, for 2026, we believe we need to simplify this area a lot.”