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The crash that sent Oliver Bearman into the barriers at Suzuka was not a surprise to the drivers who had been raising concerns about the 2026 regulations for weeks. Max Verstappen is one of them, and his patience with the sport's response has run out.
What Happened at Spoon
Bearman flew off the road at Spoon Corner after being caught out by the enormous speed difference between his car and the Alpine of Franco Colapinto, who was in energy-saving mode at the time. The gap between the two cars was estimated at between 50 and 60 kilometres per hour. The resulting impact registered 50G. Haas confirmed that Bearman escaped with a bruised knee, which given the violence of the crash was extraordinarily fortunate.
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Verstappen Connects the Crash Directly to the New Rules
Verstappen spoke to Motorsport.com after the race and did not hold back. "This is what you get with these things. One car is practically without power while another is using full deployment. You can quickly end up with a difference of fifty to sixty kilometres per hour. That is truly enormous."
He was equally direct about the causal link. "It can sometimes look like moving under braking or changing lines. But it also happens when accelerating. You can have big crashes." The pattern Verstappen is describing is not an edge case. It is built into how the 2026 power units operate, and drivers up and down the grid have flagged it since the opening race in Australia.
The FIA Acted on Qualifying but Not on Races
The FIA did introduce a rule change for qualifying in Japan, but Verstappen argued that it does not go far enough. "For me it is all the same. It is not just the lifting in qualifying. It is also about other situations where you cannot go full throttle, you have to lift, and then you cannot get back too close to full throttle before lifting again. Everything is so sensitive. In qualifying you essentially have to go slower to go faster. That is not how it should be."
His conclusion was pointed. "If it is about safety, it is easy to make changes. You can use safety as a justification for a lot of things. Maybe we should just use that word to finally get some adjustments made." The implication is clear: if the sport needs a political reason to act on something that drivers have been asking about on technical grounds, the Bearman crash has now provided one.
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