Oliver Bearman is behind Haas teammate Esteban Ocon in terms of points, but the Brit isn’t letting it get to him and is factoring mistakes into his calculations
After his stints as a substitute driver in the 2024 Formula 1 season, expectations were high for Oliver Bearman ahead of his rookie season at Haas, but after six months, the interim results are mixed. The Brit has only managed to score eight points so far, while his teammate Esteban Ocon is in the top 10 of the drivers’ standings with 27 points.
It’s no secret that things haven’t always gone smoothly for him: “There have been a lot of mistakes on my part and a lot of situations where I’ve thrown away opportunities,” he says. “But on the other hand, I expect things like that to happen to some extent at this stage of my career.”
That’s why he doesn’t want to be too hard on himself in this regard. “But of course I want to improve in the second half of the season and also for the future,” said the Haas driver.
But of course, it’s not all bad: “There were good signs of speed,” Bearman emphasizes, pointing to a good qualifying record, where he is fully on par with Ocon at 6:7. In addition, Bearman has often narrowly missed out on points and has finished in the thankless eleventh place in the last four races in a row.
What’s better now than a year ago
However, Bearman knows exactly that he can improve in the future and expects that of himself. “I always expect a high level from myself,” he says, emphasizing that he has learned a lot since his time as a reserve driver.
“I now know much more clearly what I want. I can refer to previous races when discussing setup, strategy, and so on,“ says the Englishman. ”I used to just go with the flow, but that has changed over the course of the year.“
”Now I know better what I want—whether it’s tire strategy, setup, or other things. I just have more data points to draw on, which is good. Of course, the midfield is tighter than ever at the moment, which means that a good day doesn’t always look as good as it did last year. But it’s still positive.“
”When I do a good job and I’m happy with myself, the performance is good and the car is fast,” he continues. “The bad days were tough, of course, but that was to be expected in a way. However, they are becoming less frequent – my hit rate is improving. And that’s what I expect at this stage of my career.”
Understanding Antonelli
Andrea Kimi Antonelli is currently demonstrating how quickly things can become very difficult for rookies. Despite having a fast car like the Mercedes, he is going through a tough time and has only scored points once since Imola. The Italian has spoken about his lack of confidence in the car – and Bearman can relate to that.
“Trust is the first step to being able to drive these cars at all,” he says. “You need enormous trust to get any performance out of them. I’ve had a few races where I haven’t been completely confident – and I can’t even say how much lap time that costs. It’s practically infinite.”
“Once you lose that confidence, it’s extremely difficult to regain it – and even harder to get performance out of the car,” said the Haas driver. “So I can understand the difficulties. But it’s dangerous to slip into such a negative spiral. Fortunately, I feel very comfortable in the car at the moment – and that’s crucial.”
