At the halfway point of the season, Haas’ Ollie Bearman has reflected on his 2025 F1 campaign thus far and shared his understanding of fellow rookie Kimi Antonelli’s struggles. Since Bahrain, Bearman has struggled to bring home points for himself and the team; with the exception of Haas’ double-points finish during the Sprint at the Belgian GP. After being forced to retire his car on Lap 48 of the Hungarian GP, the Briton headed into the summer break with yet another unfortunate result under his belt.
Aside from his retirement, Bearman has crossed the line P11 in each of the last four races. Whilst the wait for his next point-scoring outing continues, the Briton sits P19 in the Drivers’ Standings—ahead of Alpine’s Franco Colapinto who is yet to score. Before the Hungarian GP, the 20 year-old spoke with the media, reflecting on his development with Haas and empathised with Kimi Antonelli’s recent struggles.
Pressure comes from high expectations for himself
When asked whether he felt added pressure to deliver results for the team compared to his one-off appearances in 2024, the 20 year-old denied it.
“No, I would say in terms of expectation, internally and externally, nothing really changes.”
With 14 races now completed, Bearman explained that he now has a clearer sense of what he wants from the car when approaching set-up, tyre usage and strategy nowadays. While he acknowledged the extremely competitive midfield battle, the Briton views his progress and consistency as a positive step in his F1 career so far.
“I always expect a high level from myself. The good thing is that I’m much clearer with what I want now. I can build on previous races when we’re discussing set-up, strategy, things like that.
“Whereas before, I would just kind of go with the flow. That, across the year, has become less the case and I’m starting to be a bit clearer with what I want, whether that be with tyre usage or set-up or strategy, whatever it is. I just have more data points to build on now, so that’s good.
“Of course, the midfield is tighter than ever at the moment, and that means that a good day is not always as good as last year, but it’s still positive.”
Empathises with Antonelli’s struggles
Bearman and Antonelli are no strangers having been teammates in Formula 2 last year at PREMA. Since Antonelli’s podium in Montreal, the 18-year-old has struggled to find consistency in recent weekends. Showing empathy, Bearman stressed that confidence is crucial to unlocking performance in F1. Speaking from experience, he explained how a lack of confidence can significantly impact results—and once it’s gone, regaining it is an uphill battle. Despite his recent run of results, Bearman claims he continues to feel comfortable in the car at the moment.
“I can understand confidence is really step one in driving these cars. They require a huge level of confidence to get any performance out of them. I’ve had a few races where I haven’t fully been confident, and I can’t tell you how much lap time that costs. It’s infinite, really. When you lose that confidence, it’s really hard to find it again, first of all, and second of all, to get any performance out of the car.
“I can understand, in a way, the difficulties. It’s difficult to go into a spiral, but luckily I feel good confidence with my car at the moment, and that’s important.”
