The 2026 F1 Monaco GP proved to be a weekend of missed opportunities for Ollie Bearman, who faced the challenges of the circuit after his crash in FP3,.and qualifying 19th on the grid. After front wing and brake issues, the Haas driver had to retire the car early on lap 30. Following the race, he detailed the key moments of his difficult weekend in the print media pen.
Assessing the opening lap and following retirement
Reflecting on the early stages of the Grand Prix, Bearman explained what occurred during the opening lap. He admitted that the light contact heading into the hairpin behind teammate Ocon, which led to front wing damage, was entirely unnecessary, though he felt a bit unlucky in how the situation unfolded.
While the collision required an immediate pit stop, the VF-26 suffered no other remaining issues after the team replaced his front wing. However, he noted that the unscheduled pit stop left him stuck behind significantly slower traffic with no realistic way to overtake on the tight street circuit.
His afternoon eventually came to an end due to an unrelated problem with the brakes, which forced the team to retire the car on Lap 30.
”Yeah, at turn 6, I mean, just one of those stupid, unnecessary incidents. At that speed, on lap 1, I’m last, I’m just trying not to crash. And then I felt like, yeah, I was a bit unlucky, I think, what happened.
”No, no, no damage after that. It was just the front wing, but just unnecessary, you know, it’s a part of the car broken for nothing. And on top of that, you know, now we’re lost by some margin, stuck behind some really slow cars. And then unfortunately we had a separate issue on the brakes, which meant we had to stop anyway. Not our weekend. After qualifying yesterday, you know, I was pretty sure that nothing was going to come off today. So, yeah, disappointing.”
Bearman comparing the paces at the 2026 F1 Monaco GP
The early exit was particularly frustrating for Bearman because he believed the car had the pace to fight at the front of the midfield. He drew direct comparison to their immediate rivals, noting that Haas had been matching or slightly outperforming the Racing Bulls throughout the weekend until qualifying came around.
Looking at the final classifications at the 2026 F1 Monaco GP, Bearman pointed to the top-ten finishes of other midfield cars as evidence of what was possible. With Liam Lawson securing fifth, the Haas driver argued that they should have been right in the battle for points.
He traced the weekend’s negative outcome back to Qualifying, explaining that a different approach to timing of the lap would have easily put him into Q2.
”Yeah, exactly, look, I mean, we’ve been on par with VCARB, if not slightly ahead. The lap that I was on was a really good one, and if I would have closed it, I would have easily been into Q2. And then, of course, the whole weekend looks different. At the end, I felt like we had the measure on VCARB. Audi looked strong this weekend, but also they had a difficult weekend, you know, with both cars. So, you know, the fight was on for the points quite easily, I would say, and look where the VCARBs are. You know, I feel like that should be us, which is a shame. But that’s how it goes in Monaco. You know, if we did a slightly different strategy in qualifying, and had my bank a lap earlier on a new set of tyres earlier, maybe we would have been on track right now and fighting for a good position, but that’s not how it is.”
Concluding, Bearman expressed his readiness to leave the disappointment of the 2026 F1 Monaco GP behind and focus on the next race in Barcelona.
“So, I’m just ready to turn the page and move on to the next race.”
