Ollie Bearman faced a difficult weekend at the Imola GP. With a near miss on Q2. Bearman was left to battle his way from the back when it came to the race.
In qualifying, Bearman’s lap time which would’ve seen him through to Q2 was invalid due to a late red flag which was waved less than a second before he finished his lap. The Brit was openly frustrated with the situation and started the Grand Prix 19th instead.
With the nature of Imola, overtaking was difficult when drivers were stuck in a DRS train. Much like every race this season, clean air was king. Bearman’s position left him fighting at the back of the grid.
However, Bearman didn’t hold the same pessimistic view of his weekend. At one stage he was in P13 after taking advantage of the VSC, and he was ahead of Yuki Tsunoda. Unfortunately for him a loose wheel nut meant he was back in a lap later, consigning him to the back of the pack.
“Everyone thinks I had a shit race, but actually it was going pretty well. I just had to pit off of my medium after one lap because the wheel wasn’t attached.
“We were on the same strategy [as Tsunoda] and he was in the points, so we were on for a good result today. Unfortunately, there was an issue in the pit stop, which meant I had to do another one. That’s not the fastest way.“
New upgrades at F1 Imola GP please Bearman
The VF-25 came with upgrades to Imola and Bearman spoke incredibly positively about their effect on this weekend, and the hopes to come if they can sort the issues of following a other car.
“I came out a lap down, but in the mix with the guys fighting for the podium. Gauging against them, I had decent pace and the car felt really, really good.
“I think a bit of a weakness of this car is how it follows other ones. So that’s a little bit of work that we have to do behind the scenes, but generally the car has been feeling really good and clean air this weekend.”
Beyond the mixed results the weekends in Miami and Imola brought, Bearman maintains he felt he’s had a fairly decent season so far after his pretty terrible weekend in Melbourne.
“In terms of my performance, I feel like I’ve been decently consistent. Miami was quite a poor effort from my side, but there’s been a few points that have meant I haven’t been able to be consistent.”
“Looking at this weekend, the qualifying was the craziest thing that’s happened to me in probably my entire career. So things aren’t really going our way.”
He joked that he hoped he had better luck on the horizon. With two races left in the triple-header, he will have the chance to see.
“Hopefully we’ve used up all our bad luck this weekend.”
