Oliver Bearman left his home Formula 1 race at Silverstone disappointed after another weekend without points. The Haas driver had hoped to end a run that has seen him miss the top ten since the Canadian Grand Prix, but a disastrous opening lap and recurring starting issues once again ruined his chances.
Another race without points
Starting 13th on the grid, Bearman’s afternoon quickly went downhill after running off the track at Brooklands following contact with Alex Albon’s Williams, an incident for which the Thai driver was later penalized.
After an early pit stop left him at the back of the field, Bearman recovered to finish 14th on the road before being promoted to 12th following post-race penalties for Andrea Kimi Antonelli and Carlos Sainz.
“The start was terrible”
Despite salvaging a respectable finishing position, Bearman pointed to Haas’ continuing problems at race starts as the main reason behind another difficult Sunday.
“We had another bad start, just like in the last two races, despite me following a good procedure. We need to work on it because we keep having constant problems with our starts,” the British driver explained after the race.
“Yesterday the start was good,” he added, referring to the Sprint, “but today it was terrible. I immediately lost positions, which put us in the situation where I ended up spinning at Brooklands. After that, I found myself at the back, and we simply weren’t fast enough to overtake. We struggled badly in dirty air, then once we finally got into clean air we showed decent pace, but overall we’re still not quick enough.”
Esteban Ocon’s race spoiled by an unfortunate Virtual Safety Car
Bearman’s teammate Esteban Ocon also endured a frustrating afternoon, although for very different reasons.
After an outstanding opening lap that saw him climb from 17th to 11th place, the Frenchman pitted during a brief Virtual Safety Car period triggered by an umbrella that had blown onto the run-off area. Unfortunately for Ocon, the neutralization ended almost immediately as he entered the pit lane, costing him valuable track position. A problem with the right-rear wheel during the tyre change made matters even worse.
“Going from 17th to 11th on the opening lap was fantastic,” Ocon said. “I gained a lot of positions around the outside of several cars, and that was really satisfying. We’ve worked very hard on our starts, and recently that effort has been paying off because we’ve been getting close to the points.”
“Obviously, we gradually started losing ground while fighting the Williams cars and a few others. I thought there might be an opportunity with the Virtual Safety Car, but it only lasted about five seconds, and by the time I entered the pits the green flag was already back out, so it definitely didn’t work in our favour. We also had an issue with the right-rear wheel during the pit stop, which made the stop much longer.”
“It wasn’t a perfect race, but the car behaved normally without any major issues, and I didn’t experience the tyre degradation problems we’ve had in recent races. The mechanics and engineers did a great job improving the car compared to the previous events. I really enjoyed driving today and being able to fight without major problems, but we still need a bit more pace if we want to challenge for points,” Ocon concluded.
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