{"id":771477,"date":"2026-06-30T17:17:23","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T17:17:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/771477\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T17:17:23","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T17:17:23","slug":"how-silverstone-played-its-part-in-bearmans-learning-curve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/771477\/","title":{"rendered":"How Silverstone played its part in Bearman\u2019s learning curve"},"content":{"rendered":"

Let\u2019s put this straight out there: the 2025 British Grand Prix, Oliver Bearman<\/a>\u2019s maiden appearance at Silverstone in the category atop the schedule, won\u2019t be one he wants to remember in a hurry. After a curious blunder when FP3 was red-flagged and Bearman crashed at the pitlane entry, he was slapped with a 10-place grid drop by the stewards and raced from 18th to 11th in the changing conditions on race day.<\/p>\n

The F2 years weren\u2019t so fruitful either. Bearman\u2019s finest hour before the British GP crowd remains his determined drive from sixth to third in the F3 feature race in 2022, seeing off Caio Collet and Isack Hadjar<\/a> in the process.<\/p>\n

Bearman rightly describes his experience at Silverstone last year as a major learning opportunity. His F1 career has generally proceeded along an improvement trajectory and the British GP triggered a change in approach that accelerated that development. He was beginning to develop a reputation for being error-prone, which was somewhat unfair, given the twitchy behaviour of last year\u2019s Haas chassis.<\/p>\n

In 2024\u00a0Bearman made his grand prix debut in the full glare of publicity, standing in for Carlos Sainz<\/a> in the Saudi Arabian GP when the Ferrari<\/a> driver had to have his appendix removed. He qualified 11th, missing Q3 by a matter of a few hundredths of a second, and finished seventh after a mature and flawless drive on one of the least forgiving circuits on the calendar.<\/p>\n

That set a high bar of expectation when he was promoted to a full-time race seat with Haas, which has close technical ties with Ferrari. The assumption has always been that he is in a holding pattern as the\u00a0Maranello team evaluates him as a candidate for when Lewis Hamilton<\/a> retires.<\/p>\n

The 2025 season was, therefore, a character-building one as the Haas car\u2019s violent aversion to bumps took the whole team by surprise. After reaching the lower regions of the points in China, Japan and Bahrain, Bearman went nine straight grand prix weekends without scoring a point \u2013 hence his mental realignment over the summer break.<\/p>\n

\"Silverstone <\/p>\n

Silverstone 2025 was a weekend to forget after Bearman\u2019s FP3 pitlane entry shunt<\/p>\n

Photo by: Sam Bagnall \/ Sutton Images via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter the summer break I tried to add a bit more structure to my weekends, how I go about the weekends,\u201d he explained at the Abu Dhabi season finale. \u201cBefore the summer break, when we knew we were unlikely to even be able to get out of Q1, I spent the whole time focusing on how can I improve my driving, how can I improve the car set-up to find that half a tenth. Spending really no time thinking about where my head is at prior to getting in the car and setting goals for each session.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow I\u2019m just making sure that half an hour before the session I stop working on the set-up and the driving and all of those things and focus on my mental side. I found that to be quite useful. In the first half of the season I finished P11 four or five races in a row [it was four], so it\u2019s not like I was doing a terrible job. There was definitely a lack of consistency, but the only way of knowing what to do is by doing those mistakes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the actual difference. There\u2019s a lot of changes that I would have done, a lot of differences I would have made to what I did, but how can I do that without the knowledge of what works and what doesn\u2019t?<\/p>\n

\u201cThe kind of structure that I\u2019ve added to my weekends has been really working. I feel like I\u2019ve found some momentum and rhythm. I think rhythm is also a really powerful thing within this sport\u201d Oliver Bearman<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first half of the season is purely exploratory and has to be that way because you have to find what works for you and what doesn\u2019t. F1 is a very different sport to what I\u2019ve been doing the rest of my life. Definitely I would have changed things, but it\u2019s not as easy as knowing. You have to do mistakes to learn from them and that\u2019s really been the story of the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s not to say that I\u2019m a perfect and polished driver because I still have a lot to learn and I\u2019m aware of that. But I think being aware of that is also very important. I feel like I\u2019m in a good place. The kind of structure that I\u2019ve added to my weekends has been really working. I feel like I\u2019ve found some momentum and rhythm. I think rhythm is also a really powerful thing within this sport. It\u2019s not just one thing that\u2019s changed, it\u2019s also a consequence of gaining experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Six of Bearman\u2019s nine points finishes in 2025 came from the Dutch GP onwards, including fourth in Mexico, where he entered the fight for the podium positions by slipping past the duelling Hamilton and Max Verstappen<\/a>. It was opportunistic and a fine piece of racecraft.<\/p>\n

\"Bearman <\/p>\n

Bearman celebrates after his determined drive from sixth to third in the F3 feature race at Silverstone in 2022<\/p>\n

Photo by: Formula Motorsport Ltd<\/p>\n

And while Bearman did have the benefit of an upgraded car \u2013 Haas held off for most of the year until applying an update at Austin in October \u2013 it wasn\u2019t transformed overnight. Team-mate Esteban Ocon<\/a> continued to struggle with random braking issues until the final round of the year.<\/p>\n

Both Haas drivers are out of contract at the end of this season but indubitably Bearman has had the better of Ocon, particularly in qualifying. That poses interesting questions since, for Bearman at least, there is no immediate vacancy at Ferrari \u2013 and since he remains part of that squad\u2019s set-up, his options are limited to teams with a prancing horse on the engine cover.<\/p>\n

Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu has been guarded on the subject; asked about Bearman\u2019s post-2026 destination during the Miami weekend, he responded: \u201cAsk Fred [Vasseur, Ferrari team principal].\u201d He was no less gnomic in Monaco when the question of his 2027 line-up arose again.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s a lot depending on what other teams do as well,\u201d he said. \u201cYou know, there\u2019s obviously lots happening at this minute. So it\u2019s not up to me to say when I want it decided because it\u2019s really lots of moving parts. But yeah, around summer shutdown time, bit before, bit after. Really depending on what certain people do.\u201d<\/p>\n

For a manufacturer-supported driver, there must be an element of frustration at seeing those with similar backing enjoy more rapid promotion. Both Kimi Antonelli and Hadjar, Bearman\u2019s junior-series rivals, enjoyed fast tracks to their works teams.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know that I have what it takes and also seeing someone like Kimi and even Isack \u2013 my age, my generation \u2013 performing at the front is kind of validating myself because I\u2019ve raced with them in F4, F3, F2,\u201d Bearman points out.<\/p>\n

\"Bearman\u2019s <\/p>\n

Bearman\u2019s fifth-place finish in China has been his season high point so far<\/p>\n

Photo by: Lars Baron \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I\u2019m not disappointed, I\u2019m not sad. It\u2019s part of my journey, I\u2019m very much enjoying what I\u2019m doing with Haas and I wouldn\u2019t see staying with Haas in 2027 as a bad thing. I think it\u2019s a great opportunity, the team is on a fantastic trajectory and I\u2019m very much enjoying the journey that we\u2019re on together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Haas came out of the box stronger this season but the VF-26 still has its quirks. The car\u2019s aerodynamics require a stiff and relatively low-raked suspension platform, but this comes at a cost of driveability. Both drivers have struggled with locking brakes and a lack of willingness to turn into corners; the car\u2019s general nervousness militates against them being able to attack corners aggressively.<\/p>\n

Other midfielders struggled with overall downforce and driveability at the beginning of the season, but Alpine<\/a> has been noticeably successful in adding performance through upgrades. Haas only added small parts here and there early on in the season before staging a bigger update for May\u2019s Canadian GP, including a new floor with a more aggressive diffuser, revised bodywork, and new suspension geometry.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very much enjoying what I\u2019m doing with Haas and I wouldn\u2019t see staying with Haas in 2027 as a bad thing. I think it\u2019s a great opportunity, the team is on a fantastic trajectory\u201d Ollie Bearman<\/p>\n

Adding new elements during a sprint weekend, where there\u2019s only one practice session, is always fraught with peril and Haas ended up \u201cchasing our tails\u201d in Bearman\u2019s words.<\/p>\n

Again, it appeared that the upgraded aerodynamics\u2019 theoretical performance was only reachable by running the car low and stiff, which made it highly averse to bumps. Bearman spoke of finding new problems now he could finally \u201clean on\u201d the car.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we try and run the car in a way that\u2019s good for driveability, then the entries become really challenging,\u201d he explains. \u201cAnd when we stiffen it up to make it better, it\u2019s then impossible to find confidence. So we\u2019re kind of balancing that knife edge.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Montreal <\/p>\n

Montreal upgrade prompted a rethink following a Haas team sit-down<\/p>\n

Photo by: Guido De Bortoli \/ LAT Images via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Last season Haas managed to engineer its way out of a similar situation, though certain performance characteristics remained baked into the car.\u00a0Komatsu reckons it can do so again.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said to my guys, it\u2019s similar to, not as severe as last year\u2019s Melbourne, but the same thing,\u201d he says. \u201cWe have a setback at a certain point. Certain things, we find things, the car reacts in a certain way that we didn\u2019t expect. And then the only way to solve it is to accept the problem, then align everyone, then understand, \u2018OK, this is the issue we need to solve\u2019, then just solve it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reaction was really, really good. After Montreal, all the guys got together and then did a certain test we needed to do and then had a decent plan.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the Japanese GP, despite Bearman\u2019s failure to finish after an accident induced by the current formula\u2019s abstruse electrical deployment regime, Haas lay fourth in the constructors\u2019 standings. Slipping back, as it has done since, was inevitable since the VF-26 certainly wasn\u2019t, and isn\u2019t, the fourth-fastest car on the grid.<\/p>\n

But this is a team with ambitions to do better \u2013 and in\u00a0Bearman it has a supremely gifted driver who is determined to prove himself.<\/p>\n

This article is one of many in the monthly Autosport magazine. For more premium content, take a look at the August 2026 issue and subscribe today<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Read Also:<\/p>\n

\"Bearman <\/p>\n

Bearman has had the edge over his more experienced team-mate Ocon<\/p>\n

Photo by: Simon Galloway \/ LAT Images via Getty Images<\/p>\n

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– The Autosport.com Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Let\u2019s put this straight out there: the 2025 British Grand Prix, Oliver Bearman\u2019s maiden appearance at Silverstone in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":771478,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[1037,49,48,578,576,577,3017,273873,3030,1423,82],"class_list":["post-771477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-british-gp","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-haas-f1-team","tag-how-silverstone-played-its-part-in-bearmanu2019s-learning-curve","tag-oliver-bearman","tag-silverstone-circuit","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=771477"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771477\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/771478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=771477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=771477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=771477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}