Haas Friday review: Oliver Bearman highlights learning and progress at Melbourne. Oliver Bearman and Esteban Ocon report positive first day at the 2026 Australian GP.

Haas’ work in Australia

During pre-season testing in Bahrain, Haas emerged as the most surprising team in terms of reliability and laps completed, finishing second overall behind the reigning champion McLaren. This trend has continued into the first two practice sessions of the Australian Grand Prix, confirming the American squad’s strong start to the season.

Progress on Friday

With a total of 113 laps completed between Esteban Ocon and Oliver Bearman (the British driver completing just one lap fewer than his teammate), the best performances from both drivers came during FP2. In the qualifying simulation, Esteban Ocon set the 10th fastest time, just ahead of Oliver Bearman, who commented on Haas’ Friday in Melbourne: “It was a positive day in the sense that we learned a lot and discovered many things on a track very different from the one we were used to in Bahrain,” he said. “There are many other areas to focus on, and I think we made progress, which is the goal. Tonight it will be important to consolidate everything and make sure we take a step forward for tomorrow: that is the objective.”

Just like in FP2, Esteban Ocon posted the fastest lap for Haas in FP1 as well, finishing 11th (Bearman 14th). “There’s a lot going on, many details and information to absorb. It was interesting to test a different track and see how the car behaves. The balance seems good, there are a few small details to fix, but that’s not a problem. We need to optimize energy delivery because there is a lot to gain, and at the moment it’s not easy. However, everything is on the table if we can maximize it with the engineers. So we’ll see how it goes tomorrow,” Oliver Bearman concluded at the end of the second free practice session for the Australian Grand Prix.

Haas’ solid showing on Friday confirms that their pre-season reliability was no fluke, positioning both Esteban Ocon and Ollie Bearman as serious midfield threats for the remainder of the Australian Grand Prix weekend. As the team shifts its focus to perfecting the complex energy delivery of the 2026 Power Unit, the data gathered from their 113 laps will be crucial in ensuring they can maintain their top-10 pace when it matters most in qualifying.