Oliver Bearman has been demoted ten places on the grid for overtaking under a red flag – the stewards did not accept his explanation
Tough penalty for Oliver Bearman at the Formula 1 race in Monaco: The Haas driver will be moved back ten places on the grid on Sunday due to a red flag violation. His weekend is basically over before it has even begun, because qualifying is particularly important on the narrow Monte Carlo circuit and a penalty is therefore especially harsh.
However, the stewards showed no mercy because the Englishman had overtaken his rival Carlos Sainz (Williams) under the red flag shortly before the Rascasse.
Bearman was on a fast lap when the red flag was brought out due to Oscar Piastri’s (McLaren) accident. However, the Haas driver did not slow down immediately, but rolled past the slow-moving Williams and overtook it.
According to the stewards, the session had already been interrupted by a red flag “long before the overtaking maneuver.” The team informed Bearman relatively late, but the video footage showed that there was a light panel with the red flag directly in front of the driver.
A look at why Ollie Bearman was handed a 10-place grid drop ⬇️
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“The red flag was also clearly displayed on the dashboard, well before the overtaking maneuver,” the stewards noted.
The regulations require drivers to immediately reduce speed and return slowly to the pits when a red flag is displayed (Article 2.5.4.1 b). The same regulations also state that overtaking is prohibited when the red flag is displayed and that drivers should be aware that rescue or service vehicles may be on the track.
Stewards reject explanation
Bearman stated that he had seen the red flags but did not want to brake abruptly as he considered this to be more dangerous – in his view, his approach was the safer solution. Alexander Albon had argued similarly when he was penalized in the Miami sprint when the safety car was deployed.
The Williams driver lost fourth place thanks to a five-second penalty, and the stewards also rejected Bearman’s argument: “He should have taken sufficient measures to avoid overtaking and return to the pits slowly as required,” they said.
They went on to say: “The purpose of the rule to immediately reduce speed is solely for safety reasons – as a driver, you don’t know what’s in front of you or why the red flag is being shown. This is even more true on a street circuit like Monaco.”
“Under these circumstances, there are no mitigating factors for overtaking under a red flag. We are therefore imposing a ten-place grid penalty for the race and two penalty points.”
However, a counterexample from the 2021 season shows that things can be different. At the time, Max Verstappen overtook Lance Stroll under red flags at his home race in Zandvoort. The stewards did not impose a penalty because he “took all reasonable measures to comply with the regulations by reducing his speed in a safe manner as early as possible.”
Bearman now has four penalty points for a collision in Brazil in 2024 – you only get suspended if you accumulate twelve within a year. The ten-place grid penalty is likely to weigh more heavily on him, as it will probably mean starting from the back row.
Bearman: Tough day and good omens
In his interviews after the session, there was no indication of the penalty, but he nevertheless spoke of a “tough day” that ended with him in 15th place (+0.904 seconds).
“I feel like we made a good step with the car from FP1 to FP2, and I was pretty happy with the balance. That was pretty much it. We did a short run on medium tires to see how the performance was over one lap, and that seemed pretty stable.”
At that point, his focus was still on qualifying. “We need to see where we stand first, because I did my fast laps on medium tires—which was quite different from some of the others. I think there were some good signs today, and hopefully we can build on that and improve tomorrow,” said Bearman.
However, the rookie is not the only driver to receive a penalty for the race. Lance Stroll will start one position further back on Sunday after causing a collision with Charles Leclerc.
