Oliver Bearman on the penalty in Austin: “Unfair”, “excessive”, “mad”

The United States Grand Prix in Texas began for Haas driver Oliver Bearman with a collision with Pierre Gasly (Alpine) – and consequently came to a premature end as well, because the young Briton’s car sustained too much damage. There wouldn’t have been much left to achieve on the track anyway: Bearman had been handed a ten-second time penalty by the race stewards for the incident with Gasly. Bearman was not at all happy about this.

Bearman shocked by penalty in Austin

Bearman said after the race: “To be honest, I was quite shocked. If anything, it was a racing incident. I thought it was a bit unfair that I was given a ten-second penalty for it, especially given some incidents this year that were either not penalised at all or only resulted in a five-second penalty. Ten seconds for an incident like that seems very excessive to me, given the circumstances.”

This is how Bearman saw the incident with Gasly

The Brit on the crash: “I had a brilliant start and a great first lap. The restart after the VSC phase also went very well for me, so I had the opportunity to attack Pierre. I passed him on the inside at Turn 13. I felt I had enough space alongside my car to justify the manoeuvre, or at least the feeling that I’d earned some space, but I didn’t really get that space. I was perhaps given half a car’s width. I drove onto the kerb to avoid contact, but I simply couldn’t prevent it. Once I’d decided on the manoeuvre, there was no way I could swerve out of the way. My wheels weren’t locking up, and I didn’t lose control. It was simply that, at that stage, I couldn’t swerve out of the way any more. Ten seconds is crazy, given all these facts.”

On lap 26 of 56, Bearman was then forced to pull into the pits and park his Haas. The damage to the car was simply too severe. Bearman: “The worst thing about it was actually that I’d sustained damage to the car. It was only a very slight touch, but it basically caused the floor panel to come loose; over the next few laps, the vibrations caused it to come loose further, and the car just got worse and worse. I had maybe five laps where I actually felt really good and everything was fine, and then the car gradually, bit by bit, got worse, and then it was basically over.”

That meant retirement was inevitable. Bearman: “Then, from one lap to the next, we saw something fall off the car, and in the first sector I lost about eight tenths compared to my own best time from one lap to the next. It was quite clear that the damage to the car had suddenly escalated from a minor issue to a catastrophic level.”

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Bearman let his Haas team-mate Ocon past

So he then let his team-mate Esteban Ocon past: “I just said to myself: I’m out of the race, I’ll let Esteban past. He was catching up, and I simply didn’t want to slow him down. We’re racing as a team to beat Audi, so I let him past at the first opportunity.”

His own car was simply no longer drivable: “It was getting worse and worse; it was becoming dangerous. The car was very unpredictable, and on top of that, the engine’s mileage and that of all the parts are important.” So Bearman eventually pulled out – and consequently came away empty-handed.