Haas update as Oliver Bearman escapes 50G Suzuka crash

Haas driver Oliver Bearman is expected to be ‘fully ready’ for the Miami Grand Prix after walking away from a 50G horror crash in Japan.

Bearman limped away from his stricken Haas after hitting the barrier at the outside of Spoon Curve in an impact recorded at 50G when he was caught unaware by his closing speed on Franco Colapinto.

Oliver Bearman Suzuka crash and Miami fitness update

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Fighting Colapinto for position, Bearman came flying up behind the Alpine driver into Spoon Curve.

His closing speed was some 50kph faster than what Colapinto was travelling at.

PlanetF1.com data expert Uros Radovanovic clocked Bearman at 308 km/h while Colapinto maintained a near-identical speed to that from the previous lap.

The difference therefore appears to be on Bearman’s part, with the young Brit caught unaware by the closing speed and forced into taking evasive action.

As he dived to the left of the Alpine he found himself on the grass, and lost control of his Haas VF-26 and went shooting across the track in front of Colapinto before slamming into the barrier sideways.

Bearman collided with the barrier with the impact recorded at 50G.

More on Oliver Bearman’s huge Japanese GP crash

Oliver Bearman opens up on terrifying 50G Suzuka crash

Franco Colapinto explains ‘really dangerous’ Bearman crash speed difference

The Briton climbed from his stricken Haas but had to lean on two marshals as his right left wasn’t able to bear his weight.

He was taken to the medical centre for X-rays, with Haas confirming that he had fortunately had suffered nothing more than a bruised knee.

With a month’s break between Japan and Miami, following the cancellations of Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, his team principal Ayao Komatsu believes Bearman will be back to full fitness for the Miami race.

“He is fine,” Komatsu told Sky Sports News. “Thankfully, he’s just got a bruised knee, nothing’s broken.

“I’m really grateful that he came away with nothing too serious. He should be back fully ready for Miami.”

The FIA acknowledged after Bearman’s crash that the increased closing speeds of the F1 2026 cars were a contributing factor in the incident, the drivers having warned the governing body about such a scenario of closing speeds as recently as the Friday evening driver briefing in Japan.

It has led to calls for changes to the regulations as cars harvesting battery power and super clipping near the end of the straights have a notable speed difference to those still on full power and in straight line mode.

Komatsu, though, has again warned against a knee-jerk reaction.

“We’re looking at it from all dimensions because, when we make changes, we’ve got to make the correct ones,” he said.

“We cannot be making knee-jerk reaction changes and then a few races later be saying: ‘That was the wrong option.’

“The good thing is that the F1 community, all the teams, the FIA, F1, we’re all working together in a really open and transparent manner, which I don’t think I’ve seen to this extent before.

“I’m pretty confident that F1, as a community, we’ll find the right solution to whatever things we need to improve.”

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