After round 16 of the 2026 F1 season in Malaysia, Haas drivers Ollie Bearman and Esteban Ocon were not satisfied with the result, as the VF 26 showed great pace this weekend and led them to believe a better outcome was in the cards. After a chaotic F1 GP in Malaysia, the Haas drivers ultimately finished P14 and P15, a slight improvement from their P16 and P17 starting positions.
Bearman on the state of F1 in 2026
The race started with chaos on the formation lap when a software issue caused several drivers to get stuck in gear, and the race was red-flagged to resolve it. Having already described his experience during the formation lap, Bearman said he could see safety benefits in the FIA intervening, but added that what happened during the formation lap showed that “intervention” has gone too far.
“I don’t think they should be able to turn off our throttle pedals. I know that wasn’t the goal. And maybe it could be used for good things.
“Like in a safety car or a red flag situation, you know, if there’s a massive shunt, turn off everyone’s throttle pedal. I guess it’s not a bad thing.
“But in that case, I mean, it probably tells us that maybe we’ve gone a bit too far in terms of intervention and this low grip mode stuff, all of those things.
“It’s a nightmare to understand.”
Further asked whether he believed it was beneficial for viewers to observe the issues on the formation lap in Malaysia to better understand the current state F1 is in due to the 2026 regulations, the Haas driver responded:
“Maybe it’s a good thing, but I don’t know if I have that opinion. I don’t think it was a good thing. Are we going to talk about the race or just the throttle pedal formation?”
Haas opting to split tyre strategy for the restart in Malaysia derailed Bearman’s race
After the chaos on the formation lap, it took a while to restart the race. By then the rain, which had initially delayed the start of the race prior to the botched formation lap, had dissipated, and the track started to dry, prompting F1 teams, like Haas, to gamble on their tyre choices for the restart.
“Yeah, my throttle pedal worked,” Bearman jabbed when asked about his experience during the restart.
While Bearman was satisfied with his start, he lamented Haas’s decision to put him on slicks for the restart in Malaysia. Although he doesn’t agree with the team’s choice, he understands that if the gamble worked out, things might have looked different.
“It was a good start. But I ended up on slicks, and that was the wrong choice. It wasn’t my choice.
“I was adamant that we start on Inter, and there was a 0% chance that we put the slicks. But the team decided to put me on the slick at the last minute, which I didn’t know about. Obviously, the decision was made to split the cars from strategy.
“I didn’t agree with it. In hindsight, I still don’t agree with it. However, if it worked, we would have looked like heroes.
“I’m not blaming anyone. It’s just one of those things.”
Feeling “hard done” by the decision to restart on slicks
Starting ahead of teammate, Bearman felt “hard done” by the team’s decision to put him on the slick while Ocon remained on the intermediate tyre for the restart. The Haas driver argues that since he was the “lead” car in Malaysia, roles between teammates should have been reversed.
“However, being the lead car in that point, I was ahead of Esteban.
“I feel a bit hard done by being given the risky strategy. I know we were both at the back, but normally the lead car should be given the strategy that was a bit more normal. And the gamble should be taken with the second car.
“I felt like I was the one who took the gamble.”
Bearman believes a better result was in the cards for Haas in Malaysia
Like many drivers who took the restart in Malaysia on slicks, the Haas driver fell quite behind the rest of the field and struggled to make his way back up. To Bearman, the choice to start on slicks derailed his race and chances of scoring points for both the 2026 F1 Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championship.
“After the first safety car, I didn’t even catch them back up. I ended up 40 seconds behind the midfield. I was still super quick,” says Bearman. Adding that he believed Haas showed great pace on the hard tyre, which further enforced the Britons believe that Haas could have left Malaysia with a better result.
“I had great pace on the hard. I managed to overtake the Alpine and pull away. It was just a shame because I felt like that decision to start me on the soft totally screwed my race.
“I lost so much race time. I couldn’t do anything about it. On that side, I’m really sad because the car was quick.
“I think the conditions played into our hands today with the weather being a bit cooler. But I really feel like that was a chance at points or fighting for points today because he was up there, so it’s a shame.”
Difficulties judging the track conditions in Malaysia
Going back to the restart and his first stint on slicks while the Sepang International Circuit was still drying up, Bearman recalls how difficult it was to gauge track conditions due to the “colour” of the tarmac. The Haas pilot notes that the tarmac in Malaysia made it difficult to differentiate between dried parts and wetter sections, leaving the grip level as the only method to judge track conditions.
“It’s tough to tell really because of the colour of the track. It’s a bit like Barcelona. It’s a very grey track.
“So, It’s actually really tough to see which part of it is dry and which part is still wet because it doesn’t change colour when it’s wet. Usually, it’s very clear. You were just kind of going off of grip.
“On the slick, it was very clear that the track was drying actually quite fast and that the slick was getting better and better with temperature as well.
“But I can imagine on the inter, because of the way it was degrading, it probably felt like the grip was getting worse. That’s how it is. It did dry quite fast but not fast enough.”
Bearman knew Haas tyre choice was wrong before the restart
For the 21-year-old Haas driver, the grip levels in Malaysia didn’t suit slicks, which he realised on the formation lap before the restart of round 16 of the 2026 F1 season. Instead of blaming the team, Bearman wants to “understand” how the team can take its learnings from the situation.
“I mean even on the out lap, the formation lap, I was losing time to the guys on inter just driving around. It was clear to me before we started and when we started and every lap of the race that we should never have started on the slick.
“But that’s where we ended up and that’s the decision we took. Like I said, I don’t blame anyone. I just want to understand what we could have done better.”
Learning from mistakes
During the 2025 F1 British GP, Bearman had opted for the slick tyre a decision that proved detrimental on a wet track at the beginning of the racw. In his rookie year back then, the Haas driver took his learnings which is why he was convinced that starting the race in Malaysia on slicks was not the right choice, he explains.
“12 months ago, I did the same mistake fitting the slick in Silverstone, and I really felt like I learned from that because today I was definitely…
“The last thing I wanted to do was fit the slick and then there you go. Suddenly, I’ve got a soft tyre on and I was not happy about that.”
When presented with the possibility of Haas probably thinking it was a safe bet to split the strategy at the restart in Malaysia in the media pen, Bearman responded:
“Maybe. Maybe that’s what they thought.”
The Haas F1 team driver adds that the team needs to learn from the choices made in Malaysia so they can “improve” in the future.
“We need to understand and have a look. But when they decided to put them on, it was a mad scramble. That was it. The tyres were our game over. So, it’s a shame, and we need to understand why, and learn from it, and improve.”
Tyre gamble paid off one side of the garage
On the opposite side of the Haas garage, Ocon had opted to do the restart in Malaysia on the intermediate tire, which he thought was the right choice and enabled him to jump to P6 during the opening stages of the race. He was 2nd of the midfield battle cars behind Lawson at that point.
“After that we took the right strategy. I mean we took the right tyre for the start. I decided to stay on the inter, which was the right thing.
“We had a mega first stint on the inter. I was overtaking cars, I was up to P6. It was really good.”
Ocon laments missed opportunity for Haas in Malaysia
However, all the progress Ocon had made during the opening phase of the race in Malaysia ultimately fell apart in the latter stages. Something the Haas driver says the team needs to understand. Similar to Bearman, Ocon believes that Haas could have scored points, especially given the pace shown at certain points during the race in Malaysia.
“And then from the first time we boxed, we started moving rearwards. So we need to exactly see what happened, but we deserved more today. We had new tyres in stock, we also boxed to used tyres at the end.
“We missed the last safety car also. So 100% at the start of the race, 0% at the end of the race of success. So yeah, a bit of mixed emotions.
“But super sad for the whole team that has worked super hard to get this car to where it was. Because it was healthy, it was working well. We had great pace on the soft tyre in the beginning and on the inter.
“And we should have been fighting for the points, and we were there. So yeah, very disappointed, but it’s our fault. So we’ll keep working on it.”
Summing up the race, Ocon says round 16 of the 2026 F1 season in Malaysia was enjoyable when conditions were chaotic, and that he would have preferred the race to stay chaotic.
“It was good. Every time there’s chaos, I move forward. But every time the race settles, we move backwards.
“So, it was fun when it was chaos, and I wanted more of it. But it didn’t happen.”
Malaysia F1 race went from good to bad for Ocon and Haas
Coming back to the restart and the opening stages of the race in Malaysia, where the Haas pilot started P17 and fought his way all the way up to P6, Ocon recalled his battles with Sainz, Albon and Lindblad and how he was set to take on Lawson before the second pit stop that unravelled his race on Lap 29.
He came out behind Arvid Lindblad and could not find a way past, which became a big problem as Alonso, Hülkenberg and Stroll all came through.
“No, no, Carlos was fast. Carlos was fast, Alex was fast. Alex passed me at the start because I was very cautious.
“But, I overtook Carlos, I overtook Alex. And then I overtook Arvid. And then I was on for Liam.
“I was catching him when we were on the soft. But we boxed, and things were starting to go wrong.“
Ocon enjoyed “first gear race” during the formation lap
Having already commented on the software issues that led to the race being red flagged during the formation lap in Malaysia, Ocon gave a humorous response to another question about the initial start, saying he enjoyed the “first gear race,” which reminded him of the kart race the drivers did on the Sunday leading up to the 2026 F1 British GP.
“It’s the first time it goes wrong like this. So, I mean, the engineers, they must know better what exactly happened.
“I don’t think this is something that we will see. But I started to enjoy the first gear race. See who had longer ratios, who was doing less metres.
“I wanted to upshift to second, but they didn’t allow me to push forward. Maybe we will have… Well, that sounded like the Silverstone go-kart race.
“It was similar. And I fought for the win with Fernando [Alonso]. So maybe I would have had a chance to win that time.”
