Haas F1 driver Ollie Bearman has opened up about how his race unfolded on Sunday, the wait for a Safety Car intervention, the impact of the longevity of the Pirelli tyres, and the missed opportunities during the Azerbaijan GP weekend.
Despite showing promising pace in the practice sessions, Bearman failed to make it to the final segment of qualifying on Saturday. Early on in Q2, he triggered the fourth red flag of the session when he hit the wall on the exit of Turn 2.
Lining up fifteenth on the grid, Bearman started Sunday’s race on the hard compound tyres. After maintaining position on the opening lap, he settled into a steady rhythm during the first stint.
The British rookie dived into the pits on Lap 28 for a set of fresh yellow-walled tyres, emerging towards the rear of the field. Nonetheless, he gradually worked his way through to take the chequered flag in P12.
First stint compromised the final outcome in Baku
Speaking in the print media pen after the F1 race, Ollie Bearman lamented that he was unable to finish inside the top ten at the Azerbaijan GP despite having solid pace on hand.
Elaborating on how low degradation and minimal overheating had resulted in multiple DRS trains, the 20-year-old maintained that the loss of crucial time during his opening stint hindered him from making any meaningful progress later in the race. Revealing that he managed to do some running in clean air during his second stint, Bearman nevertheless added that the respite came too late to make up for lost ground.
“It was certainly a long race. Very tough to make overtakes here, especially with the low degradation, low overheating, it means you’re gonna follow very closely with other cars.
“As a result, it’s not really possible to get out of that [DRS] train and do something with it. I really felt like we had good pace today. Stuck behind a few cars on the hard.”
“Luckily, I got some clean air on the medium, but it was too late. We lost so much time in the first stint, unfortunately.”
Bearman doesn’t enjoy the wait for a Safety Car
In terms of what a race is like for a driver and the team when they are waiting for a Safety Car, Ollie Bearman responded, “Very boring, for sure.”
While he explained that drivers still push hard and attempt to make their rivals drop the ball, the F2 graduate remarked that the comparative lack of blunders in F1 makes the waiting game for a timely Safety Car intervention rather tedious.
“But you’re still pushing and looking for opportunities, trying to force mistakes from guys ahead. But now we’re in F1 and they don’t make mistakes that easily. Just pretty much waiting for something to happen, trying to keep the communication line open with the team to really see what you’re going to do.”
Bearman also appeared glad that Haas ultimately abandoned their hopes for a cheap pit stop and opted to follow their pre-decided strategy in Sunday’s Azerbaijan GP.
Although he reckoned that the decision to box for mediums on Lap 28 benefited them at that stage of the race, the 20-year-old proclaimed that the team hadn’t taken the initiative early enough to bring home a better result on the streets of Baku.
“Eventually, we boxed out of it [DRS train] and decided to do the normal race strategy. I think it was the best for our race at that stage, but it was too little too late. We lost a lot of time in that first stint behind slower cars.”
Asked if the outcome of the race, which saw Max Verstappen score the sixth grand slam of his F1 career, surprised him, Bearman replied, “Honestly, no.”
However, the rookie seemed genuinely amazed to discover that George Russell had crossed the line in second place.
“I don’t know where Russell came from. He must have done a decent race.”
Durable Pirelli tyres limiting strategy options
Emphasising that this year’s F1 Azerbaijan GP was quite uneventful by its usual standards, Ollie Bearman expressed his frustration over how the sturdiness of the Pirelli tyres takes the element of surprise out of the equation and leads to straightforward strategies.
“When it’s the medium and the hard, and there’s low deg like this, you can do half the race on any tyre. It kind of ruins the strategic element a little bit. But there wasn’t really much happening in that race after the few incidents in the early laps.”
Missed opportunities due to lack of experience
With regard to whether he regrets his crash in the qualifying session after witnessing the mixed-up starting order and the opportunities it presented in the race, Ollie Bearman acknowledged that the incident had left him on the back foot on Sunday.
Reiterating that the VF-25 was quite competitive throughout the Azerbaijan GP weekend, Bearman estimated that he would’ve delivered a solid result like Carlos Sainz did if he had managed to qualify better.
Furthermore, the Haas driver claimed that his relative lack of experience had left him more vulnerable to the tricky conditions on Saturday. At the same time, the 20-year-old asserted that his performances have been up to the mark in the past few race weekends.
“It’s a shame. I think if I started on the front row like Sainz did, it would have ended up the same way. We were very quick. But in those tricky qualifying, I think my lack of experience was also exposed a little bit.
“Overall, I think over the past weekend, but also the past three weekends, I’ve been performing at a high level. But it’s still those really difficult situations that tend to ship you out.”
