Oliver Bearman 'kicking himself' after scary Japanese GP crash

Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu has stated Oliver Bearman is “kicking himself” after his monstrous crash at the Japanese Grand Prix.

Bearman was forced to take to the grass after closing in on the rear of Franco Colapinto's Alpine as they approached Turn 13 at significantly different speeds.

Unable to scrub speed off his car after running off the road, Bearman spun into the barrier in a 50G collision and was seen limping heavily after exiting the Haas challenger.

Although Komatsu does not blame Bearman for the shunt, the 50-year-old revealed Bearman is accepting some of the blame.

“He’s kicking himself,” Komatsu told media including RacingNews365. 

“He's saying ‘I should have done better, no excuse. But you look at it, that 50 kph difference in closing speed is massive.

“It’s a lesson. So I’m sure we’ll talk about that in terms of our future, how we can improve.

“So it's part of it. I'm just glad that he didn't have a big injury. He hit his knee hard, but he's okay.”

Various F1 drivers have consistently warned that the new energy recovery and deployment modes this year were likely to result in a major collision.

Komatsu acknowledged that the matter needs to be addressed but warned F1 and the FIA against rushing into a change.

“I don't want to give you some knee-jerk reaction answer,” he said. “With different PU manufacturers, there are very different deployments.

“Some people got much higher speeds into Turn 1 or Turn 16. In Turn 13, Ollie knew he had an advantage, so he went for it.

“But when you use the boost button, the difference is huge. So we need to think a bit more about it.”