Was Bearman right to question Colapinto’s role in his huge Suzuka crash?

Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu was quick to absolve Franco Colapinto of blame for Oliver Bearman’s huge crash at Suzuka on Sunday.

Bearman swerved left onto the grass at 308kph when he suddenly caught Colapinto’s car as they approached Spoon curve. Speaking minutes after Bearman climbed from the wreckage of his VF-26, Komatsu avoided pointing a finger at Colapinto when asked about his role in his driver’s crash.

“He just had huge closing speed against the car in front, so he had to take avoiding action and he went on the grass and crashed,” replied Komatsu when asked by Sky commentator David Croft. “The main thing was just the closing speed, I think, it’s just huge.”

However Bearman was less inclined to chalk up the crash to circumstances alone. He suggested his rival should have left him more room given the speed difference between them.

“It was a massive overspeed, 50kph, which is a part of these new regulations that I guess we have to get used to,” he said. “But also I felt like I wasn’t really given much space, given the huge excess speed that I was carrying.”

As no one else was involved in the incident, that can only be read as a criticism of Colapinto’s actions. Bearman wasn’t the only driver who drew attention to the peculiar circumstances of the crash.

As Oscar Piastri pointed out, though Colapinto was travelling slower than usual at that point on the circuit, it was not due to the infamous ‘super-clipping’ which occurs when the new power units harvest at their maximum rate. When this happens, the cars’ rear lights flash to warn those behind them.

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“From what I saw there was no flashing light from Colapinto, so I don’t even think he was super-clipping either, which is obviously a bit of a concern,” Piastri observed.

This is clear to see from Bearman’s onboard camera. In contrast, when George Russell abruptly slowed at the same point on the track on lap 37, his red lights flashed and Charles Leclerc behind him was able to dodge past the Mercedes. This was despite Russell’s car slowing far more sharply than Colapinto’s did: his speed dropped to 206kph approaching Spoon compared to the Alpine’s 261kph.

At this early stage in the first year with F1’s new power units, drivers are still experimenting with how to get the best out of them when attacking and defending. Colapinto appears to have been doing that as Bearman caught him.

Looking at Colapinto’s approach to the corner over the three laps leading to the crash sheds some light on his approach. On lap 19 he took what is now a conventional run through Spoon, hitting 272kph on the approach to the corner, backing off slightly before the turn-in point, then slowing down more sharply as he reached the corner.

The next time around Colapinto cut his speed slightly, reaching 265kph. He slowed for the corner much as he did on the previous lap.

On lap 21 – when Bearman crashed – Colapinto varied his approach in two striking ways. First, he made his first downshift before the corner far earlier than usual.

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On every lap prior to the 21st, Colapinto did not perform his first downshift before the corner until reaching the 100 metre board prior to it. He often waited until he was close to the 50 metre board by the time he dropped a gear.

But on lap 21 he dropped back to sixth almost immediately after changing up to seventh. This was far earlier than on previous laps: well before he could even see the 200-metre board, perhaps several hundred metres earlier than usual. Instead of downshifting as he arrived at the corner he did so five seconds earlier.

This halted his acceleration completely and sent his engine revs far higher than on previous laps. It did not have a huge effect on his speed, however, which was no more than 4kph slower than it was on the previous lap, and 11kph lower than two laps earlier.

Behind him, Bearman appeared to have already committed to attacking at this point and deployed more of his energy. By the time they reached the 200-metre board he was pulling out to make a move.

Here Colapinto’s approach to the corner varied again compared to the previous lap. He clearly allowed his Alpine to drift further wide, covering off the inside line for Spoon, in what appeared to be a reaction to Bearman’s attack.

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These two changes in Colapinto’s approach to the corner appears to be the source of Bearman’s objection. Whether Colapinto actually did anything wrong is a matter for the stewards.

Drivers have previously been found responsible for causing those behind to crash by decelerating unexpectedly. Fernando Alonso was punished for this in a notorious case at Melbourne two years ago.

But these circumstances are quite different. Colapinto’s deceleration was much less egregious than Alonso’s two hits on the brake pedal. The Alpine driver’s change of line and the difference in energy harvesting under the new power units also distinguish the two outwardly similar cases. (Bearman was also involved in a similar incident last year with Yuki Tsunoda, albeit at much lower speeds).

Given the new rules, the stewards would have set a new precedent however they ruled on this matter. As they chose not to investigate, it can only be taken at face value that they had no objection to how Colapinto varied his speed and line with Bearman gaining behind him.

But the alarm Bearman’s crash has caused may force that view to be reconsidered for future incidents. The FIA is under pressure to find ways to prevent similar crashes caused by high closing speeds. The architecture of the engines may make it impossible to achieve this through engineering, at least in the short-term.

The FIA may therefore look to its racing rules to tackle a problem it cannot solve another way.

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2026 Japanese Grand Prix

• “Two balls of steel!” How Leclerc won his battery battle with Hamilton and Russell
• Was Bearman right to question Colapinto’s role in his huge Suzuka crash?
• ‘Easy to say when you’re on the pit wall’: How Gasly fight left Verstappen frustrated
• Piastri sees no easy fix for high closing speeds between F1 cars
• F1 got lucky three ways. But now it has a difficult and urgent problem to solve

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