Oliver Bearman has revealed he was worried about facing a race ban following a track-limits violation in his sprint duel with Andrea Kimi Antonelli at the US Grand Prix.
The Haas driver is skating on thin ice right now, sitting on ten penalty points — only two away from an automatic race ban. But he is relieved that he can suit up for the next race.
How Close Was Oliver Bearman to a Race Ban at the US Grand Prix?
On lap 14 of 19, Antonelli went after Bearman for the final points-paying position at Turn 15. The Mercedes held the inside line at the apex, but the Haas driver went around the outside — leaving the track — and rejoined ahead.
According to FIA F1 driving guidelines, the driver on the attack has the right to the corner and isn’t required to make room for a rival.
Antonelli didn’t push Bearman beyond the track, but Bearman’s only escape route was around the outside.
\While Antonelli didn’t force Bearman off the track, the Haas driver’s only option to avoid a collision was to run wide — though the margin was small — and he still emerged ahead of the Mercedes.
The key outcome was that the British driver avoided adding to his existing haul of 10 penalty points. Another two would have resulted in a ban for the Mexico City GP, but as he didn’t rejoin the circuit dangerously, no further points were issued.
Bearman received a ten-second penalty, which sent him out of the final Sprint points-paying position. Thankfully, no penalty points were added, which the Haas driver admits worried him.
“I don’t know what you guys thought, but I felt pretty hard done by this morning,” Bearman said. “Actually, I thought I had a race ban for a minute, so I was really, really annoyed. Obviously, with everything that happened, I had a bit of fire in me.”
The Briton openly expressed his disagreement with the stewards’ penalty, yet wisely refrained from making remarks about the officiating that could have led to further FIA punishment.
Due to the safety car after Lance Stroll’s incident with Esteban Ocon, Bearman felt the Haas team were unable to reach a decision on whether to allow Antonelli past.
“From our view at the time, we didn’t have a long time to really think about it, because the safety car came out directly,” explained. “But from where I’m sitting, it’s really marginal.
“Like I said, I think back about that 10-page document [driving guidelines] in those two-tenths of a second that he sent it on my inside and couldn’t quite figure out exactly where he was relative to my mirror or whatever,” he continued.
“So, you know, I leave it to the team to decide that. But I think by the time they were ready to make a decision, the safety car was already out,” Bearman added.
Haas F1 are having a difficult season, lying only ahead of Alpine, who have struggled throughout the year. The team did bring an upgrade to Austin, trialled successfully by Ocon in FP1, but it isn’t yet fitted to both cars.