Ollie Bearman is left feeling upset after missing out on Q3 by 0.007s in qualifying for the F1 Hungarian GP.
What’s going on?
The Haas driver hasn’t been able to score since Bahrain but has ended the last four races in a row in P11, and starts from that spot tomorrow.
Although it was a far more difficult session for his teammate Esteban Ocon, who didn’t manage to get out of Q1 and will depart from P18; the 20-year-old was still unhappy.
The British driver explained the differences between his Haas contender and the VF-25 employed by the Frenchman. He also highlighted that it’s just small tweaks, normal between different sides of the same garage.
“Different set-ups. It’s been like that for the past three or four races, nothing really has changed. Just a driver preference thing really, we have the same car but running slightly different on set-up, but that’s been the case across the year so far.”
Bearman shuts down suggestions of different specs
He also confirmed that him and Ocon aren’t running two widely different specs. But rather it’s just set-up differences to adapt the standard challenger to better suit the preferences of the driver.
“Nothing new, it’s just the standard difference between drivers.”
Bearman is especially upset as he believes more could have been in the cards for him at the F1 Hungarian GP. However, he reckons the local changeable weather conditions fazed him as a rookie driver.
“The car was quick enough unfortunately to be in Q3. I didn’t quite put the perfect lap out there, but it was tough really in Q2 with the conditions which were very variable and the track underneath me was changing quite a lot.”
Not a positive day at the office
Nevertheless, the young talent has negative feelings over the average starting position, and explained how changes did not work through practice. It left him searching for the limit again in qualifying.
“I feel like the car was quicker than that, but a few changes we did over the weekend didn’t necessarily work. So we learned from them.
“On my side it hurt my confidence a little bit. So I didn’t quite have full confidence going into quali and I built it up through the sessions. But, if I was just that 1% more confident it’s enough to get through.”
Asked on the main specifics of his car set-up issued, Bearman admitted it’s the high speed corners which are bothering him the most in the F1 Hungarian GP
“Struggling a little bit in high speed. I managed to get it together in Q2, but it’s just too little too late.”
