Oliver Bearman has extensively reflected on the incident with Franco Colapinto during the Japanese GP. The Haas driver approached the Argentine in turn thirteen, before Colapinto’s defensive move pushed Bearman onto the grass. The Brit then spun with a 50G impact into the barriers. For Bearman, this action by Colapinto was ‘unacceptable’: ‘I was really not happy with what he did’.
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It was a frightening moment during the Japanese GP: Oliver Bearman’s heavy crash. Drivers had already warned about the huge speed differences under the new F1 rules, and at Suzuka it went seriously wrong for the first time. In turn thirteen, Bearman had to evade a much slower Franco Colapinto, which caused him to end up on the grass and crash into the barrier with a 50G impact.
‘Had to prevent a much more serious incident’
Although Bearman did not suffer any fractures from the incident, he still feels the effects of the crash. “Franco slid past me to defend his position,” the Haas driver explains what exactly happened, in the Up To Speed podcast. “Last year that would have definitely been on the edge, but with a speed difference of only 5 or 10 km/h it probably would have been okay. But at a speed difference of 50 km/h, he didn’t leave me enough space and I had to try to prevent a much more serious incident.”
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“Actually, it was just a small movement when he moved left, but with such a speed difference every movement has huge consequences,” Bearman continues. “So I was lucky I didn’t hit him. It would have been much, much worse if that had happened.”
Respect
For the driver, the incident was mainly frustrating because the Friday before, the drivers had agreed to treat each other with respect in view of the huge speed differences. “We said: ‘Take a bit more time to defend your position, because the speed differences are much greater than we have ever had in our sport.’ And then two days later something happened that was unacceptable to me.” Bearman was therefore not happy with Colapinto’s action. “We have to sort it out among ourselves, have a bit more respect for each other, because I was really not happy with what he did.”
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