Oliver Bearman’s incident with Franco Colapinto was one of the biggest fallouts from the Japanese Grand Prix, as it highlighted the issue with extreme closing speeds under the 2026 Formula 1 regulations.
The Haas driver was approximately one second behind Colapinto through Suzuka’s sector two, but suddenly closed as the Alpine suffered from a lack of energy – this led to a 45km/h speed differential.
Bearman was therefore forced into avoiding action and he moved left onto the grass, before spinning into the Spoon Curve barrier at 50G. This inevitably raised questions about the safety of the new regulations but while those conversations have rumbled on, there’s also been debate about how much Colapinto was to blame for the incident.
The Argentine, who was 17th at the time, claimed in Japan that he was like a “little sitting duck” and once he looked in his mirrors, Bearman was “spinning in the grass”. So, Colapinto didn’t think any blame was at his door, particularly when replays show him taking the racing line, and this viewpoint was shared by Haas team boss Ayao Komatsu.
“Leading up to that Turn 13, Colapinto, he was always doing something consistent, it’s not his fault at all,” said Komatsu. “The lap before, his speed was exactly the same, so we knew what we were dealing with.
“It’s just that we are deploying more through there, so even with normal laps, we had a 20km/h advantage. That’s why he wanted to go for that. Then he used the boost button, but then that meant speed [difference] there is 50km/h,” he added, though the FIA then confirmed the exact figure to be 45km/h.
The governing body therefore looked into the incident as well, and it is understood that after a meeting, the FIA also felt Colapinto wasn’t to blame so gave him no penalty. But it has since emerged that Bearman holds a differing view, having not spoken out in Japan at the end of March.
“Franco moved in front of me to defend his position,” the 20-year-old told the Up to Speed podcast at the start of April. “Last year, it would have been absolutely on the limit, but probably acceptable with just a five or 10km/h speed delta.
“But with 50km/h, he didn’t leave me enough space and I basically had to avoid a much, much bigger crash. When he moved left it was a small move, but with that speed difference any move is huge, so I was lucky not to hit him.”
Bearman then labelled the crash as “unacceptable” and the situation has rumbled on into this weekend’s Miami Grand Prix, the first race since Japan due to the cancellation of races in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain amid the Middle East conflict.
“The most important thing is that he was okay,” said Colapinto. “After the race I sent him straight away a message. He never responded, so he didn’t talk to me.
“The thing I’m the most happy about is that he’s fine and that nothing bad happened. Of course, it’s a big damage for their team, but it’s part of racing. I think nowadays we need to understand much better how we can make racing safer and not take this amount of risks.
Oliver Bearman, Haas F1 Team car after his crash
Photo by: Kym Illman / Getty Images
“When things like this happen, the guy that is behind has all the knowledge of the speed that he’s doing, of the amount of boost that he’s using, of what he’s trying. The person in front is much more blind, I think.
“Nowadays, with the closing speeds, you watch the mirror in one second and the second after, the car catches you [by] 20 metres. I do think that both have responsibility on it.
“I’m going to say that I never really moved aggressively at any point in that moment or in that corner, which made him have the incident or made him crash. I’m just glad that he’s OK. Of course, I’m not happy with his comments, but hopefully we can fix it soon.”
Colapinto’s comments were then put to Bearman in Miami and the Briton claimed that “honestly, I didn’t see the text message”.
“It’s an unfortunate accident,” he added. “I think it could have gone another way. I don’t think it had to finish like that, let’s say, but no, no grudges – I’m not that type of person.”
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