Nineteenth in qualifying and seventeenth in the race. If one only looked at the standings, it would be easy to draw the wrong conclusions about Oliver Bearman and Haas’s weekend at Imola. Yet his weekend had much more to tell than what one might think at first glance.
Behind a seventeenth place that satisfies no one, there were two unfortunate events that excluded him from a fight for the points that had seemed far from impossible. The first was in qualifying, when Bearman was knocked out at the end of Q1 after his time was deleted due to a controversial red flag, which we already analyzed in a separate piece.
Starting from the back row, Bearman knew it was going to be an uphill battle, but he never expected that a pit stop error would be what took him out of contention for the points: “Now everyone will think I had a sh*t race, but actually it was going pretty well,” Bearman said after the race.
“I had to pit after just one lap on the mediums because the tyre wasn’t fitted properly. I came out of the pits behind Russell; he was seventh, I was faster than Tsunoda and we were on the same strategy, and he finished in the points.”
“So we were in the fight for a good result. Unfortunately, there was a problem at the pit stop that forced me to come in again, and that’s not the fastest way to run a race,” said the Englishman, disappointed with a weekend in which everything that could go wrong… did.
The VSC gave a chance to turn the race around
Getting into the top 10 was a tough ask, but in the first part of the race Oliver Bearman did everything expected of him: he stayed in the pack, held off Yuki Tsunoda (who finished tenth after starting from the pit lane), extended his stint and hoped for a favourable turn of events—the only real strategy from that far back.
Before the Virtual Safety Car caused by his teammate Esteban Ocon’s retirement, the Briton was running in tenth and had even managed to hold off George Russell for several laps, despite the latter switching to a two-stop strategy due to tyre troubles in the first stint.
The VSC was the stroke of luck Haas had been waiting for, allowing Bearman to pit while saving precious seconds, as with all those drivers sticking to a one-stop strategy. Even though Russell managed to get ahead of him thanks to a quicker stop from the Mercedes crew, Bearman rejoined the track in thirteenth place.
Crucially, he came out behind the Aston Martins, who were on old tyres and would need to stop again, and behind Hulkenberg’s Sauber—a rival within reach. Given that Oliver Bearman wouldn’t have to stop again and was still ahead of Tsunoda, the race looked to be heading in the right direction.
The pit stop issue… halted the comeback
The dream of a top-10 comeback, however, was shattered just seconds later: the Briton had to return to the pits to replace the newly fitted medium tyres, which had been improperly installed. Between checks and the tyre change, the stop lasted a full 29 seconds, and he came out a lap down.
A late Safety Car allowed him to unlap himself, but by then the race was already compromised. However, running in clean air after the issue, Oliver Bearman was able to show his pace, and the signs were positive—so much so that on the same tyre compound he was even faster than Albon. It’s true the Ferrari junior had nothing to lose, but it gives an idea of the VF-25’s potential.
“Ollie’s pace was really good, so we committed to a one-stop strategy. The pit stop issue ruined his race. But after the VSC, Ollie’s pace in the final stint was excellent. The positive is that the car had the pace for points. The downside is, it’s another missed opportunity. We have to fix that,” explained Haas Team Principal Ayao Komatsu.
At Imola, Haas introduced its first major upgrade package of the season, with changes to the floor, diffuser, rear suspension cover, and brake ducts. Despite the weekend being impacted by incidents, Oliver Bearman still found some positives: not only was the race pace competitive, but the car also felt predictable and consistent.
“After the pit stop I came back out a lap down, but in the middle of the drivers fighting for the podium. And, you know, racing them, I had decent pace and the car felt really good. I was still trying to push the car to the limit and it gave me good feedback, it was predictable. So from that perspective, I was happy,” added the Englishman, finding a silver lining in a weekend that—without the deleted qualifying time and pit stop error—could have offered much more.
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