Oliver Bearman vents his frustration after the Bahrain Grand Prix over his Haas team’s decision: The Briton did not agree to start on slicks
Haas driver Oliver Bearman was visibly annoyed after the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia: like many other drivers, the Briton had started the race on slick tyres, which he believes was “the wrong decision”. But “it wasn’t my choice”, Bearman reveals, slightly annoyed.
“I had strongly argued in favour of starting on intermediates. The option of slicks was actually out of the question for me,” the Ferrari junior driver makes even clearer. “But the team opted for slicks at the last minute – something I knew nothing about.”
Bearman suspects that the Haas team clearly wanted to split the strategies between the two cars. After all, his team-mate Esteban Ocon was allowed to start on intermediates. “I didn’t agree with that, and looking back, I still don’t,” says the Haas driver.
Admittedly, the 21-year-old acknowledges that they would have “come across as heroes” if the slick tyres had worked, so he doesn’t want to “blame anyone”. Nevertheless, Bearman is still not entirely happy with his team’s decision in the end.
Why Oliver Bearman feels he was put at a disadvantage
“However, as I was the leading car at that point, I felt somewhat disadvantaged that I was given the risky strategy,” recalls the Briton, noting that he started the race from 16th on the grid, one position ahead of his team-mate.
“I know we were both at the back of the field, but normally the leading car should be given the slightly more conventional strategy, whilst the second car takes the risk. I felt that I was the one who had to bear the risk.”
And the Ferrari junior driver felt the full force of that risk: within a few laps, the gap to the rest of the field had grown so large that he couldn’t even close it after the first safety car period.
“In the end, I was 40 seconds behind the midfield. Yet I was actually very quick,” says Bearman. “I had great pace on the hard tyres. I managed to overtake the Alpine and pull away. It’s just a shame, because I felt that the decision to let me start on soft tyres completely ruined my race.”
Haas driver believes: We would have had a chance of scoring points
Although the track dried out quite quickly, it simply wasn’t quick enough. “I was already losing time to the drivers on intermediates during the formation lap, even though I was just driving normally,” he reports. “It was clear to me before the start, during the start and on every lap of the race that we should never have started on slicks.”
“I lost so much time and there was nothing I could do about it. In that respect, I’m really disappointed, because the car was quick,” said the Haas driver. “The conditions – the slightly cooler weather – worked in our favour.”
In the end, Bearman crossed the finish line in 14th place, well outside the top 10. “I really feel that there was a chance of scoring points, or at least of fighting for points,” says the Haas driver. “It’s a real shame.”
Didn’t learn from the mistake at Silverstone in 2025?
What does he now expect from his team? “I just want to understand what we could have done better,” demands the Briton, who made the same mistake at last year’s British Grand Prix when he switched to slicks.
Back then, his team took a gamble at the end of the warm-up lap and brought the Briton in for a tyre change, although the final sector was still far too wet for dry tyres. “I actually thought I’d learnt from that, because today I was determined to avoid putting on slicks,” says Bearman after Sunday’s race.
“And then it happened anyway: Suddenly I had soft tyres on, and I didn’t like that at all. What can you do?” The Haas driver has no explanation for how this apparent mistake came about. “We’ll have to analyse it and take a closer look.”
“But when the decision was made to fit them, things got quite hectic,” recalls the Haas driver. “That was it then. The tyres were on. The race was over. It’s a shame; we need to understand why it happened, learn from it and improve.”
