Oliver Bearman’s Australian Grand Prix weekend has unraveled into a nightmare, with a string of incidents leaving the Haas rookie at the back of the grid for Sunday’s race – and the weekend isn’t over yet.
The 19-year-old Briton, who turned heads last year with a stunning P7 in Saudi Arabia as a Ferrari stand-in, arrived in Melbourne with high hopes.
Instead, he’s faced a barrage of setbacks: a heavy FP1 crash, a gravel-trapping spin in FP3, and a gearbox failure that derailed his qualifying before it began.
Friday’s FP1 set the tone for Bearman’s woes. Pushing his Haas through Albert Park’s challenging layout, he lost control exiting Turn 10, slamming into the wall.
The crash inflicted severe damage, knocking out both the gearbox and power unit. Though the team managed a power unit swap, the repairs stretched into FP2, which sidelined him from the session.
Saturday’s FP3 offered a chance to regroup, but redemption proved elusive. On his first flying lap, Bearman dipped a tyre onto the grass entering Turn 11, spinning into the gravel and beaching his car – another session cut short.
Unfortunately, qualifying brought fresh misery. Barely underway in Q1, Bearman radioed a gearbox issue and limped back to the pits, his day done.
"Yeah, I mean, pretty unforgiving circuit and you know, two seemingly small errors giving big consequences and missing out on all of my running, clumsiness from my side to make these errors, honestly, and that's not good enough,” he said, reflecting on the chaos.
“And then of course the gearbox issue and the qualifying pretty much sums up what we've had so far."
The candid admission underscores a weekend where small missteps have snowballed into major setbacks.
Pressure Mounts on Bearman and Haas
Bearman’s FP3 mishap—a fleeting loss of grip with outsized consequences—piled more strain on an already stretched Haas crew.
"Yeah, I just dipped a wheel on the grass," he explained. "There's a long season ahead of us, I'm not gonna get down about two days in a very long season.
“I think as a team we're struggling a bit more than we anticipated and more than we looked in Bahrain, so you know we've got a bit of work to do on that side of things on pure car performance.
“And, of course, I haven't helped out very much because the team's pretty much running with one car."
His words reveal a rookie grappling with both personal errors and a team underperforming pre-season expectations.
The lack of laps has also left Bearman unable to fully assess his VF-25’s potential.
"Obviously I haven't done enough laps to really feel what the car is handling like," he admitted. "I can only tell you from Esteban's comments, but yeah, just on pure lap time we're not that strong."
Teammate Esteban Ocon’s feedback has been his only window into Haas’ struggles, with "pure performance" proving elusive for the American outfit. With rain forecast for Sunday at Albert Park, the Grand Prix could yet offer a lifeline – or further expose Haas’ deficiencies.
For now, Bearman’s resilience is being tested as much as his driving, with 23 races left to turn his rookie season around.
Read only:
Bearman owns up to FP1 crash: ‘It’s totally on me’Keep up to date with all the F1 news via X and Facebook
Bearman admits ‘clumsiness from my side’ as Aussie agony grows F1i.com.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Bearman admits ‘clumsiness from my side’ as Aussie agony grows )
Also on site :