The 2026 F1 Mexico City GP was a rather chaotic race, with several drivers involved in incidents, including Ollie Bearman and Nico Hülkenberg. The twisty Autódromo Hermanos Rodriguez proved to be challenging for several of the talents on the 2026 F1 grid, with a red flag included following Valtteri Bottas’s heavy impact at Turn 1 because of a suspension failure.
As the barriers needed extensive repairs, the safety car quickly became a full-on race stop. Afterwards, the race resumed from Lap 47, but the chaos immediately followed suit at the green flag.
Nico Hülkenberg was behind Ollie Bearman as the Haas driver had got himself into the top 10 by jumping the German and Gasly on the restart. At Turn 4, however, the veteran ran into the back of car #87, spinning the Brit around.
In the end, the 21-year-old limped back to the pits to retire. The Audi driver was then awarded a ten-second time penalty for the big error, but was able to continue his day, reaching a final P14.
A tough situation for Hülkenberg, stuck between a rock and a hard place
Hülkenberg recounted the heated moments of the 2026 F1 Mexico City GP, explaining the tough situation he found himself in while commenting on his entire Grand Prix.
“Obviously, at the restart, it was pretty tight and heated. I was close behind Ollie, a bunch of cars close to each other, just lost the downforce a little bit on the front by being very close to him and couldn’t stop the car in time. touched him in the back. Apologies to him and Haas, obviously, that was not intentional. But, unfortunately, these things, it’s a fine line and today I got it slightly wrong there.”
Bearman rues missed points chance
Ollie Bearman as well highlighted the impact the challenging conditions had on his performance, while expressing his displeasure with the retirement.
For the former Formula 2 race winner, more could have been in the cards, especially taking into account his strong pace and the fact that his new teammate, debutant Ryo Hirakawa, had managed to immediately secure his first ever Formula One point on his debut.
“Look, it’s very tight especially this type of track, it’s dusty offline as well. When you’re on lap 50 or 45 on a restart, you know, lots of marbles. But still, I had a good restart again, I made up a few spots, I was actually in the top 10. Then, yeah, I just got hit round by Nico, it happens.”
Wasted potential for Haas in the past two American rounds
The collision hurt the Haas man even more than anticipated as it happened on a race in which the VF-26 was actually performing, allowing Bearman to enter the top ten and be in the fight for precious points.
He also recalled an earlier pit stop situation, which he had a bit of a slide as he attacked pit entry.
“To be honest, I had really good pit entries in free practice, but I was always front locking, so I was expecting front locking, and then I had rear locking, which was a little scary. We know that every tenth counts, so, the team did a great pit stop as well. All of that allowed me to be in a good place on track, and it’s a shame, because I knew that there would be some carnage on the second start, which is just normal in a track like this, such a long run down to one. There was always going to be carnage, I’m just ashamed to be on the receiving end of it.”
