FIA urged to take action after Norris’ ‘accidental’ overtake on Hamilton in Suzuka

After Suzuka, which also saw Ollie Bearman’s huge crash after rapidly closing in on the slower moving Alpine of Franco Colapinto at the Spoon Curve, drivers’ concerns surrounding battery management and deployment have only increased, with the FIA issuing a statement setting out plans to evaluate the current rules over April.

During the final laps in Japan, Norris eventually overtook Hamilton to achieve P5 after a tough weekend, but the McLaren driver later revealed the move was done without his actual input, explaining post-race: “I didn’t even want to overtake Lewis, it’s just about the battery deploys, and I don’t want it to deploy, but I can’t control it. So I overtake him, and then I have no battery, so he just flies past.”

The Briton added: “When you are at the mercy of what the power unit delivers… the drivers should be in control of it, at least, and we’re not.”

For former McLaren man Brundle, Norris’ post-Suzuka revelation is “a big issue” for the FIA, one he expects to be fixed for the next race in Miami in May.

On Sky F1’s The F1 Show, the co-commentator reflected on Norris comments: “One thing that really worried me was Lando Norris saying, ‘I didn’t want to overtake Lewis Hamilton, but my battery decided it did, and then I had nothing to defend with’.

“Now, there’s a regulation in Formula 1. It’s been around forever. It’s very simple and far reaching. The driver must drive the car alone and unaided. The driver shouldn’t have any surprises by a self-learning car. They’ve got to get rid of that.

“I’m sure it’s not the work of a moment, but the power delivery must be proportional to what the driver is doing with the throttle. That’s a fundamental. It has to be linear. It’s a big issue for the FIA."

However, while Brundle was keen to make clear that driver safety is “sacrosanct”, he also highlighted other priorities that the FIA need to consider with regard to the new rules, emphasising the safety of fans, marshals, pit-stop crew ahead of drivers.

“Everybody’s health 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 Drivers’ Association as well.

The Sky pundit did concede, however, the high level of difficulty in sorting out such a complex, yet “fundamentally flawed” set of regulations.

“But we’re hamstrung. We’ve got a motor that churns out three times its electrical power compared to last year, and the battery depletes in any given decent straight. So we’re painted in a corner. We’re between a rock and a hard place, really, on this, because the hardware is just not up to it.

“And we’ve talked about this for a couple to three years now. We knew it was going to be like this.

“So this is fundamentally flawed, but I think they should be able to smooth some of these elements out.”