Oliver Bearman isn’t satisfied with qualifying in Hungary—and certainly not with the fact that he was beaten by an Aston Martin
Oliver Bearman had actually been ahead of his teammate Esteban Ocon for most of the season, but the tables turned during qualifying in Budapest: The Brit was beaten by his teammate for the first time since Monaco and narrowly missed advancing to Q2, falling short to Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso, who was 0.107 seconds faster.
Aston Martin went all out to secure its first Q2 advancement of the season and used three sets of new tires, while Bearman used only two. “We only have three, so we didn’t really have a choice,” commented the Haas driver. “But it gives us an extra race set for tomorrow, which should hopefully put us in a good window.”
“But yes, it’s been a tough weekend so far. The Astons ran three sets, and that definitely helps them, but we really shouldn’t be fighting them,” he emphasized.
Of course, this surprising result is also due to the fact that Aston revamped its AMR26 this weekend with a comprehensive upgrade package that delivered a gain of more than 1.5 seconds. In addition, the team benefited from the twisty Hungaroring circuit, as the Honda engine still lacks power ahead of its Zandvoort update.
“It’s really painful,” Bearman continues. “It shows that we’re really struggling right now. But at the same time, it’s probably the track with the shortest straights. So I don’t think it will stay this way forever, so to speak. But still, it’s a reminder for us that we need to step it up.”
Bearman’s problems were compounded by the fact that reserve driver Ryo Hirakawa took over his car in the first free practice session to meet the rookie requirements of the regulations. “Friday was completely unproductive for us,” the Englishman laments. “I didn’t drive in FP1, and in FP2 I was looking forward to basically picking up where we left off at Spa.”
“But it feels like we’ve fallen back two or three races—the balance in the corners was really bad,” he says with frustration. “I just couldn’t find any confidence in the car, couldn’t push, and there was constant sudden oversteer when turning in. And especially on this track, there’s a huge snowball effect when you have that limitation in the car’s balance.”
