- Bearman reflects on his terrifying fifty G crash during the Japanese GP.
- Haas driver escaped serious injury after a high speed collision at Spoon.
- New regs and massive overspeed contributed to Bearman’s heavy impact.
Haas driver, Oliver Bearman, opens up about his horrifying crash on lap 22, which raised concerns about drivers’ safety under these new regulations. At the Spoon curve, he was attempting to overtake the Alpine of Franco Colapinto at high speeds.
As Colapinto slid into the middle of the track, Bearman was forced to take his car a bit away and into the grass to avoid a potential collision. He acted to avoid the collision, but he lost the balance of the car and struck the safety boards across before getting shunted into the barriers.
As he made his way out of the car, Bearman struggled to walk, seeming to have got hurt on his leg. He was helped by the marshals around to maintain balance before he sat down at the side of the track. He was later taken to the medical centre to get his condition checked.
The result of the medical assessment stated, “50G impact – has had X-ray at Medical Centre. No fractures – right knee contusion following the impact.”
Bearman on his horrifying crash and condition
In a recent conversation, Bearman updated everyone on his medical condition, revealing that he’s fine. He said, “It was a scary moment out there, but everything is okay, which is the main thing. The adrenaline is wearing off a bit, so it’s going to be a long trip home, but I’m absolutely fine.”
Following the incident, he acknowledged that the car had been badly damaged, but he’s relieved that they have one month to repair it and get it back on track. This is because F1 will be heading from Japan directly to Miami in May, as the April races in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia have been cancelled. However, he did apologise to the team for making them work a lot on the damaged car.
Explaining the high-speed feature under these new regs, he added, “There was a massive overspeed – around 50kph – which is a part of these new regulations, and we have to get used to it. Also, I felt like I wasn’t given much space, given the huge excess speed I was carrying.”
He believes that moving forward, they now have to be more prepared to avoid such mistakes, given that such a high-speed incident was the first one to happen in F1. As a team, they now look forward to coming back strong in Miami.
Where do Haas and Bearman stand in WCC and WDC?
Bearman currently stands 7th in the standings with 17 points, dropping him by 2 positions, following this incident. Meanwhile, Haas continues to maintain its 4th position in the Constructors’ standings, with Alpine catching up to it.
By the end of the Japanese grand prix, there was only Esteban Ocon’s Haas on track, which was able to secure just 1 point for the team. It brought the team’s total to 18 points. They were earlier just one point away from overtaking McLaren in the standings, but given that both their drivers, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, secured good points in the recent race, the gap has increased to 28 points.
