What Haas told Ollie Bearman after monster 191mph F1 crash at Japanese GP
Haas team boss Ayao Komatsu reveals what he told Ollie Bearman following his scary crash at Suzuka.
Haas Formula 1 team principal Ayao Komatsu says he had to tell Ollie Bearman not to beat himself up after his huge crash at the Japanese Grand Prix.
Bearman suffered a terrifying accident when he went onto the grass at over 190mph and spun into the barriers at Spoon Curve while avoiding Franco Colapinto as they battled over 17th place on lap 22 at Suzuka.
The Haas driver was caught out by the massive difference in closing speed between his car and Colapinto's Alpine before his 50G impact with the barriers. Bearman, who was seen hobbling away from his wrecked car, sustained bruising to his right knee but was otherwise unharmed.
Haas team boss Komatsu revealed that Bearman was extremely hard on himself in the aftermath of the incident.
“He's just very, very disappointed in himself,” Komatsu told media including Crash.net on Sunday in Japan. “Again, that's the good thing about Ollie, if you like: he's not making any excuses, he was really beating himself up.
“So I said, ‘Look, you know, you've done some amazing races, you got us 17 points out of two race weekends’. So, okay, his accident cost us points today, but as the old saying [goes}, we win and lose together.
“And then I said, ‘Look, you've done so many good things. Yes, today didn't go very well, but there's no point beating yourself up, you know, we just got to get up from here’. And then he said, ‘Yeah, but there's no excuse, this is a speed delta’.
“Look, he's hard on himself, which is good. But sometimes if you are too hard on yourself, it's not. But I'm sure he will bounce back, we'll bounce back. We do it together. That's the most important thing.”
Bearman has enjoyed an impressive start to 2026, finishing seventh in the season-opener at Melbourne before following that up with a brilliant fifth place in Shanghai. The 20-year-old Briton sits seventh in the drivers’ standings after the opening three rounds of the campaign.
Asked if the incident was caused by a combination of driver error and F1’s new rules, Komatsu replied: “‘Error’ is a big strong word, to be honest. You could say ‘small misjudgement’, but it's scary though, that closing speed.
“When I look on the GPS lap before, it's totally understandable and the correct decision to go for it there, but it's just huge. This is only the third race in this regulation, so that's something he's never experienced. So I don't even call it ‘error’, you know.”
F1’s governing body the FIA has confirmed the new regulations will be discussed during meetings taking place in April ahead of the next race in Miami on 3 May.
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