Ollie Bearman celebrated Haas’ first double points finish of the 2026 season at the F1 Azerbaijan GP. The young British driver showed strong performance across the weekend, narrowly missing Q3 during Qualifying. After Sainz’s grid penalty, Bearman started the race from P10.
Both Bearman and teammate Esteban Ocon narrowly avoided the massive pile-up caused by Colapinto’s lock-up during the first Safety Car restart. In the end, Haas were rewarded with a P8 for Ocon and P9 for Bearman. This marks the team’s first double points finish since the 2025 F1 Las Vegas GP.
Bearman spoke about Haas’ performance at the 2026 F1 Azerbaijan GP in the print media pen.
Double points finish for Haas
Bearman expressed excitement about Haas’ double points finish in Baku. He reflected that the large amount of DNFs aided their ability to stay in the points.
Teams such as McLaren and Alpine failed to score points, with Colapinto, Gasly, and Norris involved in a crash during a Safety Car restart, and Piastri finishing outside of the points after locking up while defending a podium position after the second one.
“I’m super happy. To score points with both cars is such an incredible feeling, even if it was a race of attrition with a lot of retirements. I think if it was green, we would have been P11 like where I was [during Qualifying]. However, we’ll take it. To stay in a race like this is always the target. We know how crazy they can be, and it was crazy today.
“And I’m so proud of the entire team — everyone back home at the factory, also in Italy, the aero guys. To bring points after the upgrade that we bought, I can’t imagine how they’re feeling right now. I think they should be very proud of themselves.”
Bearman continued, expressing that the F1 Azerbaijan GP felt like the first weekend both Haas cars performed equally across the weekend as parts inconsistency has hampered them across the European leg of the season.
“To be honest, this was the first weekend that we had the cars performing equally, which is a great feeling. So that’s really, really positive. I don’t think we exactly understand why, but I can say that since we put the update on the car, it’s been a lot more comparable between cars.”
Bearman explains contact with Antonelli during 2026 F1 Azerbaijan GP
During the Safety Car restart, both Bearman and Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli narrowly avoided a collision with Colapinto, who locked up and hit his teammate. While avoiding the Argentinian, Bearman noted that he made contact with Antonelli at Turn 1, losing his end plate. It allowed his French teammate to get a run and take P8 away at that point.
“I was taking it quite easy into [Turn 1] because I knew that something would happen and of course it did. [Franco] Colapinto locked up and took everybody out. I was looking for the gap but Kimi [Antonelli] was also avoiding Colapinto, who was coming in out of control, but I was there.
“He kind of turned across in front of me, snapped off my end plate. I also probably damaged his car [floor damage for the Italian]. And then I ended up losing the position to Esteban [Ocon]. So it was a bit of a shame on that side. Of course, in that situation, both Kimi and I were just trying to avoid the crash from Colapinto. So I don’t blame him and I’m sure he doesn’t blame me — we spoke quickly about it.
“I ended up losing the spot, and then after the restart I was really stuck there and ended up getting overtaken by Arvid [Lindblad]. So that was a bit of a shame, considering that I had really good pace and it was a shame to not be in clean air. That was annoying.
“But to have both cars in the points, I don’t really care what order it’s in. Points are points. I’m really proud of the team.”
“Our fight is clearly with Audi” — Bearman on 2026 World Constructors’ Championship
Following the Azerbaijan GP, Haas sit P7 in the World Constructors’ Championship with 27 points. Bearman explained that Haas aims to stay ahead of Audi in the championship, who currently sit P8 with 17 points.
“It is really challenging to score points, because the top eight is pretty much locked in and then you have either Alpine or VCARB, depending on the track. I think our fight is clearly with Audi — we need to try and outscore them or at least try to be ahead of them as much as possible, which is what we did this weekend. But I know that they’ve got some performance probably to unlock with this update.
“So the target will be just to bring the fight to Audi as much as possible, because I think that’s a realistic goal in the [World Constructors’ Championship], is to stay ahead of them.”
