Oliver Bearman recovered from an eventful Sprint Race, where he received a ten-second penalty after a battle with Kimi Antonelli, to qualify eighth for the United States GP Race. The Haas driver had started the weekend with a small floor and bodywork upgrade, which he first ran in Sprint Qualifying, finishing 16th before bouncing back to main qualifying to reach Q3.
Chaos and controversy in the Sprint
At the start of the US GP Sprint, chaos erupted through Turn 1. Bearman had to take careful action to avoid debris and contact, but through it all, managed to climb from 16th to 8th. The Brit was later involved in a side-by-side battle with Antonelli on Lap 14. Antonelli attempted to overtake into Turn 15, with Bearman running wide before regaining the position. Stewards decided that he had left the track and gained an advantage, handing him a ten-second penalty.
When asked if Q3 later in the day made up for the earlier frustration, Bearman said, “Yeah, actually, I thought I had a race ban for a minute, so I was really, really annoyed,” as Bearman currently has 10 penalty points. “But no, obviously, with everything that happened, I had a bit of fire in me. And, yeah, with the difficulty, I would say, of this weekend for myself, you know, rookie going into this track on a sprint format, very bumpy circuit and quite a unique one rated quite difficult by the drivers. Plus that I only put the upgrade on the car in sprint quali. It was really an uphill climb before the weekend. And I was, I knew it was going to be a huge challenge. So to be standing here in P8, I’m really, really proud of myself and what the team has achieved.”
Learning he avoided a race ban
With Bearman currently being two penalty points away from a race ban, he admitted that for a brief moment, he thought he would be banned from the next race.
Jessica Borrell, the Senior Communications Manager at Haas, was the one to tell Bearman that he did not, in fact, receive a race ban. “Jess, Jess saved my life. Yeah, exactly. It’s just silly because, you know, I think 10 seconds for that. I don’t want to say, you know, I don’t want to start saying things that I shouldn’t, but I felt like I was hard done by this morning. Anyway P8 was good in quali.”
Understanding the upgrades
He also reflected on the team’s new upgrades on the floor and bodywork, which were fitted to his car only from the Sprint qualifying onward.
“Yeah. You know, I didn’t really get to feel them in sprint quali because we did just one lap and obviously I didn’t get to do my second one. But I had one feeling on the car, you know, from doing one lap. And then in sprint race, we got a bit of an understanding of characteristics of the car, which are quite different in high fuel and then how we should run the car,” Bearman explained.
“So we did some adjustments now before the qualifying, mainly targeted towards the race because I felt like I was really struggling out there this morning. But it even helped us in qualifying. So generally I think the upgrade is pushing us in the right direction. I would say it makes the car a little bit more sensitive and a bit more on the limit. That’s for sure because, you know, I did a mistake in Q2 in my second run. Just, you know, a bit of wind and it’s enough to, you know, flick the rear around. So that’s another compromise we’re playing with at this stage of the regs. Bringing performance to the car, you make the car more sensitive to everything. But it’s definitely faster, so that’s all we need.”
On whether to give the position back
Asked if the team considered handing the place back to Antonelli to avoid the penalty, Bearman explained: “From our view at the time, we didn’t have a long time to really think about it because the safety car came out directly,” as on Lap 16, Stroll and Bearman’s teammate, Ocon, collided on Turn 1.
He added: “But I think, you know from where I’m sitting, it’s really marginal. Like I said, I think back about that 10-page document in those two tenths of a second that he sent it on my inside and couldn’t quite figure out exactly where he was relative to my mirror or whatever. So, you know, I leave it to the team to decide that. But I think by the time they were ready to make a decision, the safety car was already out.”
Eyes on Sunday
Looking ahead, Bearman said that regardless of finishing position, he gave everything in the Sprint and is determined to stay clear of further trouble in the race. “Yeah, but 8th or 9th or 20th, I don’t really care. You know, I was 8th, so I was going to give everything to go for that. We got very lucky to be in P8, but I was holding on for dear life. Like I said, with a setup that was probably not the best for high fuel or sustained running. And, you know, anyway, tomorrow I’ll try not to be fighting with anyone.”
He also noted the importance of being cautious at the start, following the Sprint Turn 1 action: “Yeah, that was a good one. No, it’s a bit of a dog leg there in Turn 1 and that’s something we need to be aware of tomorrow. I was very careful this morning as well. If you look, I think everyone swamped me into Turn 1 but actually maybe that’s a good approach to have.”
