Oscar Piastri foresees difficulty for the FIA in finding a way to prevent the potentially dangerous closing speeds between Formula 1 cars which led to Oliver Bearman’s crash yesterday.
The FIA acknowledged “the contribution of high closing speeds in the accident” when Bearman suddenly gained on Franco Colapinto approaching Spoon curve and lost control of his car. Bearman missed Colapinto but hit a barrier on the outside of the corner with a force of 50G.
The sport’s governing body said it will use the five-week gap until the next round of the championship to look into concerns arising from the first three races under F1’s new regulations. However Piastri is doubtful much can be done to reduce the high closing speeds which can occur between cars.
“We’ve spoken about that being a possibility since these cars were conceptualised,” said Piastri. F1’s current engine regulations were approved in 2022 and are due to remain in force until at least 2030.
“It’s what we’re stuck with, with the power units,” he said. “There’s no easy way of getting around it.”
He pointed out footage of the crash suggested Colapinto’s car was not ‘super-clipping’ at the time.
“From what I saw there was no flashing light from Colapinto [on the back of his car], so I don’t even think he was super-clipping either, which is obviously a bit of a concern,” said Piastri.
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“I had a pretty close call in free practice with Nico [Hulkenberg] because he caught me about three times as quickly as I expected on the straight, and we were both at full throttle.”
Piastri said it will likely be down to drivers to avoid a repeat of such incidents in the future.
“I think there’s clearly an element of learning for us as drivers, and where the accident happened it’s not a place where you expect someone to come from so far behind and have such a big speed difference. And whilst we’re learning that, unfortunately things like this are probably going to happen, which is a shame.
“But, you know, I think we understand as a sport there’s a lot of things we need to tweak, a lot of things we need to change, and especially on safety grounds, yes, there’s some things that need to be looked into pretty quickly.”
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2026 Japanese Grand Prix
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- 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
- ‘Good show, good for everyone’: Ferrari and Mercedes bosses praise Japanese GP
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Published by
Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 – when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring journalist, Keith began running the site full-time in 2010, achieving a long-held ambition to dedicate his full attention to his passion for motor racing. View all posts by Keith Collantine
F1 got lucky three ways. But now it has a difficult and urgent problem to solve