Oliver Bearman says outqualifying team-mate Nico Hulkenberg on his Haas debut at Formula 1’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix doesn’t dampen his disappointment on missing out on the top 10.
Bearman finished 11th in Q2, missing the Q3 shootout by just 0.128s to Williams driver Alex Albon.
The young Briton, who is set for his second grand prix on Sunday following a Ferrari cameo in Saudi Arabia, said a slide through the castle section of Turns 11 and 12 caused him to miss the top 10 shootout.
After learning he was eliminated, Bearman fumed on the team radio: “I had a lock up. Damn it! I’m such an idiot.”
Explaining what happened, he said: “It was coming up the castle. I was a bit deep in Turn 11. I had a snap into 12 and I lost enough time to stop me from the final round of qualifying.”
Oliver Bearman, Haas F1 Team, puts in his earplugs
Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images
But Bearman felt the real damage had been was done when he’d crashed out in Turn 1 at the start of Saturday morning’s FP3 session, which robbed him of valuable soft-tyre running to build up to qualifying.
The 19-year-old came into the Turn 1 left-hander too hot and then decided to head into the escape road, but ran out of grip and clattered the barriers with the left-hand side of his VCF-24.
“It definitely put me on the back foot,” he reflected. “I think not in confidence, but for example the mistake I made in qualifying, I’m sure I would have already done this mistake in FP3 and figured out how to not do that, so we just lost a lot of mileage.
“First of all, I didn’t account for the track differences, because I basically started from where I left off in FP2, but the track took a step backwards. I braked a bit later than I did in FP2 and just went a bit deep. It wasn’t a big issue, but when I tried to get out of it, it was so slippery off the line that I didn’t manage in time.”
Bearman still qualified 11th, with his vastly experienced team-mate Hulkenberg in 14th, but that didn’t dampen his annoyance with himself.
“No, because I should have been in Q3,” he replied.
“I’m tough on myself because I know that the car could have done more. If I felt like the car was fast enough for P11, then I would be really happy right now, but the car was definitely quick enough to be in Q3, so that’s why I’m disappointed.
“I gave the guys a huge job [to repair the car after FP2]. They finished the car like five minutes before we went out, so a huge shout-out to them because they worked tirelessly.
“I’m a bit disappointed just because I feel like I could have been in Q3 if I had gotten those extra two soft-tyre runs in FP3. At this stage of my career those are super valuable.”
Nico Hulkenberg, Haas VF-24
Photo by: Dom Romney / Motorsport Images
Meanwhile, Hulkenberg played down being trumped by his rookie team-mate, but praised Bearman for his street circuit prowess.
“You always want to be faster than your team-mate, but I wouldn’t overemphasise that,” he shrugged. “I think Ollie is a [street] course specialist, he’s proven that several times.
“He was on the pace from lap 1 yesterday, feels comfortable here, has good confidence. Does a great job, drives very, very well; very, very cleanly. No question about it.
“I don’t want to take anything away from him. He’s coming into Formula 1, he’s going to have a long career ahead of him, so there’s no need to doubt whether he has the speed or not.”
