Haas driver Ollie Bearman had a difficult weekend during the 2026 F1 Spanish GP, during which the Madring circuit debuted. The British driver had a difficult weekend following a crash during FP3 when meant he missed out on qualifying.
During a race where overtaking was near-impossible, Bearman finished outside of the points. Following the race, Bearman spoke to print media about his race performance and thoughts on the new circuit.
Bearman on inaugural race at Madring circuit
The 2026 F1 Spanish GP marked Formula 1’s inaugural race at the Madring — a Madrid-based street circuit. Starting from the back of the grid, Bearman reported having strong pace on the hard tyres but struggling to overtake during the race.
“I think we did the best that we could. I wasn’t quite able to overtake Albon, which was a shame. Starting on the hard actually, I had a really good stint on the hard once I got clean air. I was as quick as everybody who fitted the hard in the VSC, so on that side the pace was very strong. But then on the medium I had a horrible feeling, it didn’t feel very good at all. It was a shame.
“Anyway, we knew it was going to be a tough race after the situation I gave us yesterday — I put ourselves in yesterday. I really have myself to blame for that.”
Bearman on FP3 at F1 Spanish GP
The British driver missed qualifying at the Spanish GP due to a late, high-speed crash in FP3. When asked about his parts-allocation for the rebuilt VF-25, Bearman reported no issues with his car.
“We’ve been very good in terms of what we have. The team have done an excellent job putting the car back together. It was exactly as it felt basically in FP3. On that side, I think they’ve done a great job.
“I think the goal of today — knowing that unless something crazy happens, we were going to be confined to the very much not scoring points — the goal was really to have a good feeling back with the car, have a clean day, and that’s exactly what we did. So I’m quite happy in that regard.”
“Costly mistake” for Bearman
He continued, stating the tyres likely struggled with the hot track at the Madring. Bearman expressed that the his strong pace couldn’t have been showcased due to his starting position at the F1 Spanish GP.
“It was a hot track today and it seemed like it was a lot less resilient to overheating. I was stuck in traffic as well, which didn’t help but it just didn’t give me the grip basically to mount a challenge. Like I said, I was much quicker than Albon. I was on much newer tyres because that’s the reason I was quicker. But I simply couldn’t do anything about it because I had so much overheating.
“Then I went back into the hard and it was fine again. So that’s a shame. But obviously, if I was in a good starting position I would have started on the medium or the soft and got off of it straight away at the first VSC.
“So again, it all boils down to my costly mistake on FP3. On that sense, I’ll learn a lot and take away a lot because although it’s been a tough weekend. I think it’s the ones like this that teach you the most and develop you the most as a driver. So it’s been a painful one but for sure a lesson, and one that I’ll never do again.”
Lessons learned after FP3 crash
The British driver reported that a strong tailwind during FP3 influenced his incident. Bearman reflected that he would take away a lesson from this race weekend, learning that the risk may nay be worth the reward in terms of pushing the limit during FP3.
“It’s really tough because I really felt like I built up the weekend well. I didn’t necessarily picture that as a corner where I would encounter any difficulties. It was a really benign corner on Friday and even on Saturday, in the laps that I did before it was fine, the balance was good.
“But then on that lap, I had basically 15 kph more tailwind than the lap before which, clearly, it’s enough to spin the car around. I’m not saying that I didn’t do anything wrong. Clearly, I shouldn’t have been driving that fast for that wind condition and stuff like that.
“But the important thing is just, at that time, it’s FP3. I wasn’t really going to learn a lot more even though I was improving on that lap. I didn’t really gain much and, of course, the risk-reward maybe wasn’t quite the correct one.“
Bearman criticises F1 Spanish GP Madring circuit
The Haas driver was not the only driver to express concerns with the Madring’s track layout. Bearman explained that drivers reported their issues with the track to the FIA on Friday.
“You only have to look at the layout, and it’s quite clear that it’s going to be a poor track for racing. Not only do you have a lot of long combined exits where it’s really tough to put power down, but also you have a lot of combined entries as well. It’s very easy to drive a bit dangerously defending your position and therefore very hard to send an overtake. We said that already on Friday to the FIA.
“And we need to look into a way to make the track a bit more interesting for us because it’s interesting in [qualifying] to drive for sure, but in the race it’s very poor.”
Comparing to other street circuits
Bearman explained that the Madrid street circuit had more options in terms of layout compared to tracks such as the Baku City Circuit, which was limited by its location.
“When you arrive and you see that layout and you’re like, ‘What do you expect us to do?’ It’s a bit of a shame. Especially you can understand in a track like Baku, like Singapore where there’s simply nowhere else for the layout to go.
“But if you compare here… I mean basically from Turn 5 all the way until Turn 17, there was a bit of free rein and I don’t think that free rein was used to the maximum of its potential.”
Bearman continued, emphasising the strengths of Baku’s street circuit compared to the Madring.
“It doesn’t take a genius to make a track layout that lends itself to overtaking. And they managed to do it, like I said, in Baku even better than this track — and Baku had a lot more limitations with buildings around. So in that sense it’s been a bit of a disappointment, but hopefully next year it’s going to be a bit more interesting. And actually I’ll be happy if we can be fighting for the points as well.“
