A newly surfaced video of Ollie Bearman has revealed the extent of the injury he sustained during Sunday’s Japanese Grand Prix.
Bearman's race at the Suzuka Circuit in Japan came to a premature end on Sunday, when he suffered a 50g crash that saw him hit the barriers on lap 24 after losing control of his Haas.
The 20-year-old was closing in on Franco Colapinto at a speed difference of around 50mph when the Alpine driver moved off the racing line and towards the middle of the track.
Moments later, Bearman had little other option but to swerve to avoid crashing into the back of the Alpine, but in doing so, he ran onto the grass and ploughed through the distance boards.
Advert
There was immediate concern for Bearman, who was in visible pain as he limped off the track. Fortunately, an x-ray showed no fractures.
“Happy to report that everything is okay," he said in a statement. "Really sorry to the team for what happened. It’s been a bit of a freak accident with such a huge closing speed, so we need to go back and understand everything.”
When asked if it was just bruising he had sustained in the crash, Bearman replied: "Everything is fine. Adrenaline wearing off, it's going to be a long trip home but I'm absolutely fine.
"The important thing is that everyone is in really high spirits. We have a month now to reset everything and come back stronger in Miami. That will definitely be the goal."
After the race, a video emerged on TikTok that shows Bearman with a noticeable limp as he walked onto a bullet train in Japan.
One fan commented on the clip, saying: "Is he using the suitcase as a crutch? Hope he gets well soon," and another wrote: "He's limping (crying face emoji)."
Ollie Bearman reacts to crash as he mentions new regulations
Bearman was closing in on Colapinto at a speed difference of around 50mph heading into turn 13, which is one of the consequences of the new super-clipping phenomenon that is causing cars to decelerate when harvesting battery power.
Speaking about the crash, he said: "It was a massive overspeed, 50kph which is a part of these news regulations that I guess we have to get used to. But also I felt like I wasn't really given much space given the huge excess speed that I was carrying.
"It's something that we talked about on Friday with the other drivers and the stewards that we need to be a bit more lenient, a bit more prepared because of these huge deltas in speed.
"I think as a group we warned the FIA what can happen and this has been a really unfortunate result of a massive delta speed we've not seen before in F1 until these new regulations."
Jack Kenmare