Franco Colapinto arrived in Miami insisting he doesn’t want to turn Suzuka into a running feud — but he also made it clear he’s unimpressed with how Oliver Bearman has chosen to frame their high-speed clash.
The Alpine driver said he messaged Bearman in the immediate aftermath of the Japanese Grand Prix incident, only to be met with silence. The Haas rookie, for his part, had already gone public on the Up To Speed podcast, calling Colapinto’s actions “unacceptable” and placing the blame squarely on the car ahead.
Bearman’s crash was a nasty one. Coming up quickly on Colapinto, he took to the grass to avoid contact, lost control and hit the wall in a heavy 50G impact. Both drivers have repeatedly acknowledged the only thing that really matters: Bearman walked away.
But in a paddock that runs on relationships as much as lap time, Colapinto wasn’t hiding his irritation at being portrayed as reckless — particularly when he feels the broader context of 2026 racing has been glossed over.
“No, I already spoke about it,” Colapinto told media in Miami when asked whether he’d seen Bearman’s comments and if he felt a need to discuss it with him. “I think that the most important thing is that he was okay.
“I’m not going to comment too much about it. I’m just going to say that after the race, I sent him straight away a message. He never responded. So he didn’t talk to me. I didn’t talk to him.”
That “left on read” detail might sound trivial, but it speaks to how quickly these situations calcify. Drivers can usually defuse flashpoints with a quiet word, a text, a nod in the hospitality corridor. When that doesn’t happen, the narrative hardens — and by the time the next round rolls around, everyone’s choosing sides.
Colapinto is pushing back on the core of Bearman’s argument: that a small move left from the Alpine at exactly the wrong moment triggered a chain reaction. Bearman believes the speed differential between cars in 2026 magnified the danger; Colapinto doesn’t deny the closing speeds are vicious, but he’s not accepting a one-way version of events.
“The thing I’m the most happy about is that he’s fine and nothing bad happened,” he said. “Of course, a big damage for their team, but it’s part of racing.
“I think nowadays we need to understand much better how we can make racing safer and not take this amount of risk.”
Then came the crux of Colapinto’s defence — and it’s hard to argue it doesn’t reflect a real feature of the new era. With the kind of rapid approach speeds drivers are dealing with at times this season, the car in front can be effectively blind to the exact delta of the car behind.
“I think when things like this happen, the guy that is behind has all the knowledge of the speed that he’s doing, of the amount of boost that he is using, of what he’s trying, and the person in front is much more blind,” Colapinto said.
“I think nowadays, with the closing speeds, you’re watching the mirror in one second, and the second after, the car has caught you 20 meters. So I do think that both have responsibility on it.”
It’s not an outright accusation, but it’s a firm reminder: the attacking driver controls the risk as much as the defending one controls the line. Colapinto also disputed Bearman’s interpretation of the Alpine’s movement.
“I’m going to say that I never really moved aggressively at any point in that moment, or in that corner, which made him have the incident, or made him crash,” he said. “I’m just glad that he’s okay. Of course, not happy with his comments, but hopefully we can fix it soon.”
Miami is an interesting place for this argument to re-surface, because the championship isn’t the only thing being managed here — the sport’s safety calculations are, too. The FIA has introduced tweaks for this weekend, including a provision that boost mode will be banned if conditions are wet, a direct response to concerns about how quickly cars can arrive on each other when grip is compromised. With thunderstorms forecast for Sunday, it’s a timely backdrop to a discussion that’s no longer theoretical.
What happens next between Colapinto and Bearman is likely to be more telling than any quote. Drivers don’t need to be friends, but they do need a shared understanding — especially when they’re racing in machinery that can turn minor misjudgements into massive impacts. A returned message wouldn’t solve Suzuka, but it might stop it becoming the kind of grudge that lingers far longer than the damage bill.
