Ollie Bearman recovered from a frustrating 10-second penalty in the Sprint to finish ninth in the F1 US GP. The Haas driver celebrated scoring points for the sixth time this season but admitted feeling slightly disappointed, believing a stronger result was possible.
In FP1, Bearman finished 10th. He then received a small upgrade to his VF-25’s floor and bodywork ahead of Sprint qualifying, where he placed 16th. In the Sprint, he avoided a chaotic Turn 1 incident to climb to eighth. However, after a close battle with Kimi Antonelli, Bearman received a 10-second penalty that dropped him to 15th.
Despite that setback, the Brit bounced back quickly to qualify eighth for Sunday’s race.
“Happy to be disappointed”
In the written media pen after the F1 US GP, Bearman highlighted that his P9 result showed both progress and unused potential. “Yeah, yeah, I mean on one side I’m happy to be disappointed, in a way it’s a bit of cliche, but to be P9 scoring two points for the second weekend in a row, but to be disappointed about that is a good thing, because it shows that we have more potential and out there today I think P7 was not a realistic result out there. I had a bit of a difficult first stint, but I really started to find a bit of a groove coming into the second one…”
After pitting for soft tyres on Lap 30, Bearman chased Yuki Tsunoda for P7 until a near-collision on Lap 34. Bearman attempted an inside move into Turn 15, but Tsunoda moved left, forcing Bearman into the dirt and a spin. The incident cost him another position to Nico Hülkenberg.
When asked whether the tyres were going off, Bearman explained: “I was going through the dust and everything, I had no battery left because I was attacking Yuki and that was my chance to overtake him, so I felt like Nico had a bit more pace at the end of the stint today, but also if without that incident I would have at least finished 8th if not 7th because I had more pace than Yuki.”
Late-season upgrades show promise
Haas upgraded the floor and bodywork on Bearman and Esteban Ocon’s cars, aiming to improve aero lead, balance, and grip. Having used the new package since Sprint qualifying, Bearman noted: “It seems to be positive, we’re learning a lot about it. It’s a tough weekend to introduce an upgrade on the car, so it’s obviously not the easiest to draw conclusions, but certainly in qualifying it gave me good confidence, even in the race I felt like we had good pace.”
He added, “It needs a bit of fine-tuning for sure and the characteristics are a bit different with the car. I think we would have been standing here in a better place if we’d have done three practice sessions and really been able to dial in the set-up.”
