Oli Bearman handed HUGE penalty by F1 stewards – British racing driver Oliver Bearman made his F1 debut last season as the Ferrari replacement for Carlos Sainz who developed appendicitis on Friday evening at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. The rookie turned heads with his qualifying effort putting the SF-24 into Q2 to start the race in P11.
Bearman’s race pace was exceptional as he moved up to seventh place during the Grand Prix to finish ahead of Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton as the chequered flag fell. Oli announced he would be driving for Haas F1 this year at the 2024 British Grand Prix and he was in action again come Azerbaijan as the stand in for Kevin Magnussen who was banned for receiving too many points on his F1 super license.
With Haas ditching both their drivers for 2025, Bearman has was paired with the experienced Esteban Ocon who left Alpine after several disagreements with the then team boss Bruno Famin. The British driver has excelled in qualifying, with the count being 8-5 in favour of Ocon, though at times his race craft has been questionable and his points tally of just seven is below par when compared to his French team mate on 23 – even for a rookie.
Bearman slammed bv F1 stewards
Oliver Bearman has been hit with a hefty penalty by the F1 stewards at the British Grand Prix, for accelerating back to race pace under a red flag at the end of the theirs practice session. The session was stopped following a huge smash for Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto as his car developed a suspension failure through the Beckets and Maggots section of the track.
“The stewards heard from the driver of Car 87 (Oliver Bearman), the team representative and reviewed positioning/marshalling system data, video, timing, telemetry, team radio and in-car video evidence,” read the stewards’ report.
“The race [session] was red flagged at 12.33:57. Car 87 had slowed down for the red flag and, as he was approaching Turn 15, accelerated significantly to race pace and entered the pit entry road at 260km/h. He lost control of the car in the pit entry road and crashed into the barriers.
“Art. 37.6 (a) of the Formula One Sporting Regulations and Art. 2.5.4.1(b) of Appendix H of the International Sporting Code require that when a red flag is shown ‘all cars must immediately reduce speed and proceed slowly back to the pitlane’.
Bearman punished for red flag error in Monaco
“It is beyond doubt that the driver of Car 87 did not proceed slowly back to the pitlane when he accelerated to simulate entering into the pit entry road under race conditions. In fact, we looked at a previous in-lap under normal racing conditions and found that he was faster in this lap, under a red flag.
“To make matters worse, he lost control of the car and crashed into the barriers while at speed. The driver informed us that he misjudged the fact that his brakes were not warm because the lap was done slowly, due to the red flag. While this may have been a factor contributing to the crash, we did not consider it to be a mitigating factor.”
Oliver Bearman also received the unusual four point penalty from the stewards in Monaco, where he passed Carlos Sainz at the Rascasse corner under similar red flag conditions during FP2. Bearman now has 21 Grand Prix weekends where he must receive less than four more penalty points or he will become the second driver after Magnussen to receive a race ban under the current toting up process.
Martin Brundle said, “in decades past you’d be sent home for that – disqualified from the rest of the event.” With the Haas not expected to be one of there best of the midfield runners, its now likely Bearman will start in P20 and last come the Grand Prix on Sunday.
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Hamilton’s move to Ferrari was sprinkled with marketing fairy dust which blurred the three year failure that were his final years with the Mercedes AMG F1 team. Lewis was beaten by his team mate George Russell in two of their three years racing together and his final championship season with the Brackley based team saw him crushed by his team mate in both qualifying and classified race positions.
“A reset” was the hope for the Hamilton camp as he headed for Italy, but did he underestimate the challenge of joining a new team late in his racing career? Hamilton had driven for just two teams in his eighteen year F1 career and on the whole was the deemed the number one driver despite tough challenges from team mates Jenson Button and Nico Rosberg….. READ MORE
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