The 2026 F1 Hungarian GP was one to forget for Haas’ Ollie Bearman, who has lamented the weekend as the “worst of the year”.
The Briton struggled with his Haas VF-26 from the start of the weekend. Facing significant tyre degradation and sliding in Qualifying, resulting in a frustrating Q1 elimination. Bearman started the 2026 F1 Hungarian GP in P17 and took the chequered flag last of the finishers in P19, two laps behind the race winner, Lando Norris.
Reflecting on the difficult weekend, Bearman shared his insights on the incident with Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar that led to a five-second penalty, and the sudden dip in performance of his VF-26.
Bearman clarified he had no “malicious” intent against Hadjar at the 2026 F1 Hungarian GP
During the 2026 F1 Hungarian GP, Bearman was handed a five-second penalty for failing to comply with blue flags while being lapped by Isack Hadjar. It was reported that the Briton passed 11 consecutive blue flag light panels before he allowed the Frenchman to pass.
Following the end of the race, the 21-year-old explained that he did not have any “malicious” intent towards blocking Hadjar. There had been a track-wide technical issue that affected the electronic marshalling system. This meant there were no driver numbers displayed on the boards.
Additionally, no warning signals were shown on Bearman’s steering wheel, confusing the Briton.
“Yeah, it was definitely the worst [race] of the year. I feel bad about the blue flag penalty with Hadjar, because honestly it was a bit of a nightmare out there. You know, you go through basically the infield, you don’t have time to check in the mirrors. And basically every lap I did, I had blue flag screens coming up.
“This race, they weren’t working properly. So it was tough to know if it was you or the car behind or the car ahead or whatever getting the blue flag. So obviously it wasn’t malicious. I’m a lap down. I’m not trying to do anything bad, but obviously I feel bad for anyone’s race that I may have compromised.”
Frustration over the sudden lack of performance
Speaking on the tough outing, Ollie Bearman admitted that it had been a challenging weekend since the beginning. The Briton also shared that he was unable to find confidence in his VF-26. He then expressed his frustration over the lack of consistency in his Haas’ performance, something Esteban Ocon has also had this year.
“Yeah, generally it’s just been a horrible weekend. From the first lap that I’ve done until now, I’ve not been able to find any confidence. And it’s like all that progress we’ve made over the last two events maybe has been erased, and we’re back to square one. Because I don’t understand how we go to Spa and have such a competitive feeling and confidence with the car, and then I come here, and the car is an absolute nightmare to drive. We think we understand why, and that’s important, but we need to go through things properly before the next race.”
Bearman expands on tough 2026 F1 Hungarian GP weekend
The Briton then identified turns 2 as his weakest point throughout the 2026 F1 Hungarian GP weekend. In the race itself, he had a spin due to a lack of grip.
“Turn 2 has been the worst corner for me all weekend. And that race I had that spin, I mean, one thing, I knew I was on the lock stop, so I didn’t have enough steering lock to catch it. It went that suddenly. So yeah, that’s just a sign of how difficult it is to drive today.”
The British driver also shared his perspective and confusion on getting the blue flags light as early as lap 6. The track-wide technical issue left Bearman confused for the majority of the 2026 F1 Hungarian GP, and he had to rely on the pit wall to navigate them throughout the race.
“No, exactly. At the start of the race I was getting blue flags after six laps, and I thought, wow, that’s strange. We’re not that slow to be lapped in six laps. So like I said, from lap six basically until lap 70, there were some blue flags every single lap. So it was really tough to know what was real, what was fake, what was for me, what wasn’t, because normally you have your number. This time it was just a blue. So like I said, nothing malicious. I had to really rely on the team to help me through those blue flags.”
Addressing the Haas’ severe performance deficit
Despite a challenging 2026 F1 Hungarian GP, Bearman shared that he is satisfied with his personal performance in the VF-26. While the Haas was lacking performance, he believes that he was able to extract the most from the car on track.
Regardless, it was still a disappointing weekend for both Bearman and Haas. The 21-year-old once again lamented the car’s inconsistency, sharing it was frustrating for only one car in the garage to be performing each weekend.
For instance, at the 2026 F1 Hungarian GP, teammate Esteban Ocon’s Haas was the better-performing machine, finishing the race in P16.
“Well, we’re seeing that the car is not performing as it should, and yeah, I feel like I’ve done a good job. I’ve done my maximum and tried to get the most out of the car, but the feeling has been, like I said, nothing like what I had in Spa, and we’re measuring big deltas in terms of loads compared to that event and compared to the other cars.
“It’s been a horrible, horrible weekend, and it’s just a sign of how poor we are in terms of consistency, because if it’s not me, which it has been this weekend, and maybe one or two others, it’s Esteban’s car that is suddenly missing 10-15 points of load. So you’re kind of just hoping you’re going to be on the good side, and if you are, you’re going to have a decent weekend, and if you’re not, you’re going to have a really, really long one. We had a long one.”
