Rookie driver Ollie Bearman had a disappointing Miami GP to top off his overall eventful weekend.
Bearman’s tough luck resulted in him being unable to finish the race on Sunday due to a suspected power unit issue. His woes did not end there as he was knocked out in both SQ1 and Q1. He also crashed out in FP1.
More positively, he did manage to finish the sprint race in the final points scoring position. Unfortunately, his bad luck continued as he received a penalty after the race for an unsafe release, dropping his final sprint classification out of the points down to P14.
Good start to GP with an unfortunate ending
Bearman started the race in Miami from P19. Despite the tough challenge ahead of him to make it into the points, the British driver was pleased with his race start.
“I got into the race and I got a few spots in lap one, which was nice. Honestly, after that I struggled a bit on top speed and I couldn’t overtake despite having quite a good pace.”
Reflecting on his progress throughout the race, Bearman shared issues he was having with managing his tyres.
“I was pushing really hard to try and overtake Stroll, and that wasn’t the best on my tyres. I was kind of hanging on after that on the hard, and then we had the failure. It was looking okay, probably not enough for the points today, but that’s how it is.”
When asked whether his DNF was due to a power unit issue, he was initially unsure, though shared his suspicions.
“Things haven’t really gone our way, unfortunately. Sad to be here DNFing. Unfortunate… I’m not sure [whether it was a PU issue]. It feels that way. We haven’t fully seen what happened yet, so we have to come back and analyse, but it didn’t sound the best.”
Taking away positives despite Miami’s challenges
After the tough weekend, Bearman shared some of his highlights from the Miami GP overall. Notably, he reflected on his progress up the field in the sprint and how he will take away a new approach to qualifying.
Although losing the final point-scoring position due to a penalty, Bearman reflected positively on the sprint race.
“The sprint race, I felt, was super positive. I performed really well, in my opinion.”
Another difficult aspect to Bearman’s weekend was crashing out in FP1. The Haas rookie was pleased with how he adapted to the sprint weekend despite the added pressure from the crash.
“I’m glad that I got up to speed quickly in Miami, of course. My mistake in the soft tyre in FP1 was not the best. Qualifying, I left myself with a lot to learn.”
Another positive for the rookie included being a Haas driver at the team’s home GP. When asked how it felt to be a part of the local team, he enthused.
“Busy, but cool. I’ve liked it here, it’s been nice. Everyone’s been super welcoming.”
Struggling in qualifying
Bearman has been out-qualified by his teammate Esteban Ocon in five out of six races so far this season. Despite this, Bearman does not seem particularly worried about his one-lap pace.
“It’s not been a reoccurring issue, it’s just I struggled in qualifying in this race but I never really felt great confidence, particularly with the low speed balance. It’s something we need to look at, but I’m not reading into that.”
Although not dwelling on his one-lap performance, he did share a new approach to qualifying sessions that he is taking away from the Miami GP.
Instead of focusing on saving fresh tyres for the race, Bearman shared that he will look to use more tyres in qualifying to ensure a better of chance of getting through to Q2 and start higher up on the grid. He emphasised how this will be the key to better results, particularly in tracks he has not visited before.
“Especially on a track like this, I need to take the minimum risk approach.
Doing three sets of tyres in Q1 because when I’m still learning a track, when I only did one lap on softs prior to qualifying, I’m obviously not going to be able to expect everything by the time quali comes around.
That showed by having a poor qualifying yesterday. So, certainly a lot to be learned.”
New challenges as a rookie
Following a short break after the Miami GP, Formula 1 will next head into the triple header at Imola, Monaco and Barcelona. Bearman shared how he was looking forward to a break ahead of this.
“A week to reset. We have a big, busy triple header coming up with all the tracks that I know, which is going to be a nice thing. I haven’t had that for a while, so I’m looking forward to that.”
Another challenging aspect for the rookie has been quickly adapting to sprint weekend formats. This has been especially difficult with reduced practice time at unfamiliar tracks, such as Miami. The British rookie shared how he is looking forward to more non-sprint weekends.
“To have a normal format, because for me this weekend has been tough with the new circuit and the sprint format. A week to reset and relax before the busy triple header.”
Looking ahead to the next race, Bearman also hinted at some team upgrades for the next race.
“This week off is going to be nice for all of us. First of all, to reset a little and come back stronger for the triple header. We have some interesting stuff coming to Imola, so hopefully it works out.”
