{"id":608635,"date":"2026-04-16T19:34:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T19:34:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/608635\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T19:34:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T19:34:12","slug":"oliver-bearman-blames-franco-colapinto-for-f1-japanese-gp-crash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/608635\/","title":{"rendered":"Oliver Bearman blames Franco Colapinto for F1 Japanese GP crash"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oliver\u00a0Bearman<\/a> spoke for the first time about the accident he suffered at the Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix – placing full responsibility on Franco Colapinto<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The incident occurred on lap 22 of the 53-lap race, where\u00a0Bearman started around one second behind the Alpine<\/a> through Suzuka\u2019s sector two.<\/p>\n

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But he suddenly closed as\u00a0Colapinto was harvesting energy, with a speed differential of nearly 50km\/h, and he was forced into avoiding action by moving to the left and onto the grass.<\/p>\n

This caused him to lose control and subsequently hit the barriers with a 50G impact at Spoon, thankfully not suffering any injuries despite requiring assistance to exit his Haas car.<\/p>\n

Bearman didn\u2019t speak to the media that Sunday at Suzuka, but has since addressed the incident on Thursday in an interview with the Up to Speed podcast.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThat\u2019s the first time really in history, or at least in as long as I can remember, that two cars fighting for position have such a massive speed delta, and that\u2019s really an unfortunate consequence of these regulations,\u201d the Briton said.<\/p>\n

Oliver Bearman, Haas F1 Team car after his crash\"Oliver<\/p>\n

Oliver Bearman, Haas F1 Team car after his crash<\/p>\n

The 20-year-old then blamed Colapinto, arguing that he suddenly moved to the left to defend P17, despite his team principal Ayao Komatsu absolving the Argentine of any responsibility<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\u201cFranco moved in front of me to defend his position,\u201d added Bearman. \u201cLast year it would have been absolutely on the limit, but probably acceptable with just a five or 10km\/h speed delta.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut with 50km\/h, he didn\u2019t 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. It would have been much, much worse if I had.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Haas driver added that his frustration with\u00a0Colapinto was heightened because such scenarios had been discussed in the drivers\u2019 briefing ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt was something we spoke about on Friday, which makes it even more frustrating,\u201d he claimed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe said among all the drivers: we need to give each other a bit more respect, move to defend your position a bit earlier, because the speed deltas are much higher than we\u2019ve ever had in our sport. And then two days later that happens, which for me was unacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

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

Bearman reiterated that he was very unhappy with Colapinto over the incident and called for greater respect between drivers, while also pointing to potential changes that could be made alongside the FIA.<\/p>\n

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\u201cHe saw me coming and moved,\u201d\u00a0Bearman said. \u201cLast year it would have been fine; this year he sees me coming too late. I\u2019m arriving with such a speed delta that at that point it\u2019s too late to move. So I saw him look in his mirror and go left, which is not good.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to sort these things out between drivers, have a bit more respect between us, because I was really not happy with what he did.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I also think there are a few tweaks we can make with the\u00a0FIA, and we\u2019ve been working very well together to try and avoid these big speed differences in any case. Because, as I said, 50km\/h is normally like a car on a cool-down lap versus a car pushing – and when they then move to defend, it becomes dangerous.<\/p>\n

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“I\u2019m glad I\u2019m okay and happy to be completely fine, looking forward to Miami.\u201d<\/p>\n

Miami hosts the next round of the 2026 F1 campaign on 1-3 May.<\/p>\n

Read Also:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

F1 ‘needs to decide’ on the next engine regulations this year \u2013 Stefano Domenicali <\/a><\/p>\n

To read more Motorsport.com articles visit our website<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oliver\u00a0Bearman spoke for the first time about the accident he suffered at the Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":608636,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[229554,49,48,49178,578,576,577,1036,7935,14847,229555,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-608635","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-bearman","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-colapinto","12":"tag-f1","13":"tag-formula-1","14":"tag-formula1","15":"tag-franco-colapinto","16":"tag-haas","17":"tag-japanese-grand-prix","18":"tag-speed-differential","19":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608635","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=608635"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608635\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/608636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=608635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=608635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=608635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}