Haas Formula 1 team principal Ayao Komatsu has absolved Franco Colapinto of any blame after Oliver Bearman crashed out of the Japanese Grand Prix.
After qualifying a lowly 18th and making an earlier pitstop than most, Bearman was battling Colapinto for 17th when he lost control at 306km/h coming into Spoon, crashing his Haas car with a 50G impact. The young Briton hobbled out of his car and was diagnosed with a right knee contusion.
The incident was triggered by a 45km/h speed difference with the Alpine, which Komatsu has explained was down to different energy management tactics.
“Leading up to that Turn 13, Colapinto, he was always doing something consistent, it’s not his fault at all,” Komatsu said. “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 – the FIA confirmed the exact figure to be 45km/h.
“So I’m sure you guys saw on the onboard, the closing speed was massive, and he just misjudged it. So it’s one of the things I think we talked about, you know, with this regulation – closing speed could become an issue. So unfortunately, that was one of those incidents.
“Of course, he’s kicking himself, he’s saying like, ‘I should have done better, no excuse’. But, you know, you look at it, that 50km/h difference in closing speed is massive. So it’s a lesson, so I’m sure, you know, we talk about it in terms of our future, how we can improve, so it’s part of it.
“I’m just glad that he didn’t have a big injury. He hit his knee hard, but he’s okay.”
Oliver Bearman, Haas F1 Team car after his crash
Photo by: Kym Illman / Getty Images
While he made it clear that Colapinto wasn’t responsible for the incident, Komatsu also refused to put the blame on Bearman.
Asked if the incident was caused by a mixture of driver error and F1’s new rules, the Japanese replied: “‘Error’ is a big strong word, to be honest. You could say ‘small misjudgement’, but it’s scary though, that closing speed. When I look on the GPS lap before, it’s totally understandable and the correct decision to go for it there, but it’s just huge.
“This is only the third race in this regulation, so that’s something he’s never experienced. So I don’t even call it ‘error’, you know. It’s just something I think we should be aware as an F1 community and maybe see what we can improve to mitigate that, because it could have been a lot worse, right? So I’m really glad that he didn’t break anything. His knee has been thrown up, but it’s nothing bad.”
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