Ollie Bearman’s 50G crash during the 2026 Japanese Grand Prix seemed inevitable to the Formula 1 drivers.
They’d previously warned that a big wreck would likely feature in the 2026 campaign, given the nature of the new car design technical regulations introduced this year.
The engines are now nearly a 50/50 split between electric and internal combustion power, prompting drivers and teams to rethink old habits and adjust their driving styles.
One of the biggest learnings they’ve had to apply relates to electrical energy harvesting, and safety concerns have been raised because the way the engines do this results in significant differences in closing speeds.
This is what caused Bearman’s crash, as he was caught out going around the suddenly-slowing Alpine being driven by Franco Colapinto shortly before the halfway stage of Sunday’s race.
“We’d spoken about that being a possibility since these cars were conceptualized,” McLaren’s Oscar Piastri said during the postrace news conference, after he finished second in the contest won by Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli.
“It’s what we’re stuck with, with the power units. There’s no easy way of getting around it.”
Bearman was following Franco Colapinto just after they had both made pit stops in the 53-lap race, and the Haas had the speed advantage. This was around 12 mph on “normal laps” heading into the Spoon corner where Bearman would crash, Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu said postrace.
Komatsu also stated Colapinto’s speed was consistent in this area. When Bearman decided to attempt an overtake on Lap 22 of 53, he used the Boost engine setting to gain extra speed using his electrical energy.
When Bearman pushed the button, the speed differential between the two cars increased further to 29 mph.
As the two drivers came out of Suzuka’s hairpin section and the ensuing Turn 12, then headed uphill to the Spoon curve, Colapinto’s engine stopped getting electrical power from its Motor Generator Unit Kinetic system. This is typically a software settings choice from teams to ensure the cars use their energy efficiently across a lap.
Here’s the moment Bearman went into the barriers at Spoon #F1 #JapaneseGP pic.twitter.com/XmurXApWkp
— Formula 1 (@F1) March 29, 2026
But it does mean Colapinto stopped gaining towards the Spoon turn as would’ve been typical with the previous generation of cars, and combined with Bearman using Boost, they suddenly got very close, very fast.
Bearman jinked to the left of the Alpine to try to avoid it and touched the grass. He then lost control, smashed through a brake marker board, and was sent spinning across the track and into the far outside barrier. This triggered the safety car period, which shaped the race in Antonelli’s favor.
Bearman’s speed was 191 mph when he went off the circuit. After he climbed out of his car, TV cameras captured him being assisted by a marshal as he walked gingerly. He was taken to the Suzuka track’s medical center, where it was confirmed he didn’t have any fractures.
A Haas statement did later say that Bearman had suffered “a right knee contusion following the impact.”
“I felt like I wasn’t really given much space given the huge excess speed that I was carrying,” Bearman told F1 TV after the race. “It’s something that we spoke about with the other drivers and the stewards (in the post-second practice drivers’ meeting with FIA officials). That we need to be a bit more lenient, a bit more prepared, because of these huge deltas in speed.
“As a group, we’ve warned the FIA what can happen, and this has been a really unfortunate result of a massive delta speed that we’ve never seen before in F1 until these new regulations.”
According to Komatsu, Bearman was “kicking himself” afterwards, saying, “I should have done better, no excuse.” But when a reporter suggested the crash was partly caused by driver error, Komatsu pushed back. He said error was a “strong word” and added, “You could say small misjudgement, but it’s scary though, that closing speed.
“It’s totally understandable and the correct decision to go for it there, but it’s just a huge (speed difference). This is only the third race in this regulation, so that’s something he’d never experienced. I don’t call it an error.”
Speaking after the race, Colapinto called it a “really strange” moment, comparing the speed differential to being “almost like you’re on an out lap (driving slowly out of the pits in a practice or qualifying session) and another guy’s on a push lap (running at top speed).”
He and Bearman weren’t the only ones to note the closing speed differential and the dangers that come from it on Sunday. It was a major talking point throughout the paddock as the teams packed up to head back to their bases for the unexpected spring break following the cancellation of the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian races.
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella said that this incident “is not a surprise,” given the closing speed differential between a car deploying energy and another not doing that.
Then there is the super clipping factor — where the engines harvest energy and slow the cars down even though a driver stays on full throttle. Stella had warned about the super clipping factor, specifically in preseason testing, as a major safety issue with these new rules.
“It is on the agenda of the FIA (world motorsport governing body) in terms of the aspects of these 2026 regulations that should be improved,” Stella said. “We don’t want to wait for things to happen to put actions in place. Something happened (at Suzuka).
“Oliver, luckily, it seems like he got out of it with just some bruises, but nothing too major.
“We have a responsibility to put in place the actions that, especially from a safety point of view, need and should be implemented.”
The FIA released a statement after the Japanese GP about Bearman’s accident. It stated that ongoing discussions on the technical regulations have been taking place among the teams, drivers, the FIA, F1 championship organizer Formula One Management, and the engine manufacturers.
A review of the rules is now scheduled for the Miami Grand Prix weekend, five weeks from now.
“It has been the consistent position of all stakeholders that a structured review would take place after the opening phase of the season, to allow for sufficient data to be gathered and analysed,” read the FIA statement.
“A number of meetings are therefore scheduled in April to assess the operation of the new regulations and to determine whether any refinements are required. Any potential adjustments, particularly those related to energy management, require careful simulation and detailed analysis.”
Aside from the qualifying tweaks made ahead of the Japanese GP that slightly reduced the amount of super clipping the engines needed to do to get around the energy-sapping Suzuka layout, it’s understandable why substantial changes haven’t been made within the first three race weekends.
The dataset has been small when analyzing how these regulations operate under race conditions. F1 didn’t want a knee-jerk reaction toward the regulations as a whole, though safety always remained paramount.
But in the span of those three race weekends, there’s now been one substantial incident that validated the safety concerns being raised, and several near misses in practice sessions and during race starts.
The drivers feel as if they’ve been ignored.
Williams’ Carlos Sainz, who is also one of the directors of the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association, reminded Sky Sports after the Suzuka race that the drivers had been warning about the potential for an accident such as the one Bearman endured.
But when asked whether Sunday’s incident could help with the drivers’ request for changes, Sainz alleged the racing spectacle was being prioritized.
“That’s why I was so surprised when they said, ‘We will sort out qualifying (with the super clipping rule change) and leave the racing alone, because it’s exciting,’” Sainz explained. “As drivers, we’ve been extremely vocal that the problem is not only qualifying, it’s also racing.
The Spaniard went on to point out how different an incident such as Bearman’s would be at a street circuit, such as Singapore or Azerbaijan. At Suzuka, there was at least an escape area behind the Spoon corner, unlike street courses, where the barriers sit much closer to the track.
“I hope it serves as an example and the (FIA) listens to the drivers and not so much to the teams,” said Sainz. “Some people said that the racing was OK, but the racing is not OK.”
There are differences in how engines harvest and deploy energy, which affect the new closing speeds, which were rarely a feature in the cars used until 2025.
The FIA statement said speculation on further rule changes “would be premature” at this stage. But one of the ideas being discussed is increasing the limit on how much engines are allowed to super-clip — from 250kW to 350kW during qualifying.
This would reduce the amount of lifting and coasting that drivers need to do to recover further energy. This adds to the danger of increased speed differential to a car chasing behind, Stella said on Sunday.
“It’s a case that should be studied with a certain level of analytical approach,” Stella continued, about the 350kW idea. “I don’t think a simple solution exists, but we have the expertise (to try and find one), with the engineers.”
But only time will tell if any rule changes will now take place, as F1 enters its five-week break until the Miami GP. The drivers warned this could happen. Now it’s a matter of what action to take to help them.
