{"id":581256,"date":"2026-04-04T07:21:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T07:21:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/581256\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T07:21:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T07:21:11","slug":"ayao-komatsu-warns-against-knee-jerk-reactions-to-oliver-bearman-franco-colapinto-incident","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/581256\/","title":{"rendered":"Ayao Komatsu warns against “knee-jerk” reactions to Oliver Bearman-Franco Colapinto incident"},"content":{"rendered":"

Haas Formula 1 boss Ayao Komatsu has warned against any \u201cknee-jerk\u201d reactions to the incident between Oliver Bearman<\/a> and Franco Colapinto<\/a> at the Japanese Grand Prix.<\/p>\n

Bearman was around one second behind the Alpine<\/a> through Suzuka\u2019s sector two, but suddenly closed at Spoon as Colapinto harvested energy causing a 45km\/h speed difference.<\/p>\n

The Haas driver was therefore forced into evasive action, and after taking to the grass, he spun into the barriers at 50G, prompting more questions about the contentious 2026 regulations.<\/p>\n

This time it was in relation to the closing speeds, which had already been a talking point through pre-season, that have become more severe due to how drivers opt for different battery management strategies.<\/p>\n

Read Also:<\/p>\n

Colapinto claimed it can become \u201creally dangerous\u201d, Carlos Sainz<\/a> said \u201cit was only a matter of time\u201d before such a collision occurred, whereas Lando Norris<\/a> thinks a driver is at the \u201cmercy\u201d of the power unit.<\/p>\n

So there have been calls for changes, something that\u2019s already occurred with the energy recovery limit in qualifying<\/a>, ahead of a meeting between F1, its teams, power unit manufacturers and governing body the FIA on 9 April.<\/p>\n

But Komatsu is eager to not see changes for the sake of it, as he told Sky Sports: \u201cWe\u2019re looking at it from all dimensions because, when we make changes, we\u2019ve got to make the correct ones.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe cannot be making knee-jerk reaction changes and then a few races later be saying, \u2018that was the wrong option\u2019.<\/p>\n

\"Oliver <\/p>\n

Oliver Bearman, Haas F1 Team, Ayao Komatsu, Haas F1 Team<\/p>\n

Photo by: Haas F1 Team<\/p>\n

\u201cThe good thing is that the F1 community, all the teams, the FIA, F1, we\u2019re all working together in a really open and transparent manner, which I don’t think I\u2019ve seen to this extent before.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m pretty confident that F1, as a community, we\u2019ll find the right solution to whatever things we need to improve.\u201d<\/p>\n

This comes amid a set of regulations which have certainly divided opinion due to their increased reliance on electrical energy\u00a0\u2013 with Max Verstappen<\/a>, for example,\u00a0saying drastic changes are needed.<\/p>\n

But Komatsu doesn\u2019t think the situation is as severe, believing only tweaks are needed, citing the qualifying change because it allowed drivers to lift off later into corners at Suzuka.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlready taking action, a small step for qualifying by reducing the amount of energy you can recover, so that was one good step,\u201d\u00a0Komatsu told print media in Suzuka.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we already identified several areas. The small differences\u00a0\u2013 doesn’t have to be wholesale changes\u00a0\u2013\u00a0that can improve some of the issues we saw in Melbourne and Shanghai, and then this is another example.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we are collectively learning so many things, but I’m sure if we put those, let’s say, relatively even minor improvements, I think you can drastically improve the show as well as the safety.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo again, sitting here, I don’t know exactly what mechanism we should do for that particular incident, but for instance, things happen in Melbourne and Shanghai, at least in my eyes, there’s a pretty clear solution we can take, and which is not big.\u201d<\/p>\n

Additional reporting by Ronald Vording<\/p>\n

Read Also:<\/p>\n

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– The Motorsport.com Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Haas Formula 1 boss Ayao Komatsu has warned against any \u201cknee-jerk\u201d reactions to the incident between Oliver Bearman…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":581257,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[222493,49,48,578,216537,576,577,1036,3017,215217,3030,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-581256","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-ayao-komatsu-warns-against-knee-jerk-reactions-to-oliver-bearman-franco-colapinto-incident","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-f1","12":"tag-f1-japanese-grand-prix","13":"tag-formula-1","14":"tag-formula1","15":"tag-franco-colapinto","16":"tag-haas-f1-team","17":"tag-japanese-gp","18":"tag-oliver-bearman","19":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=581256"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581256\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/581257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=581256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=581256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=581256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}