Oliver Bearman, driver for the Haas F1 team, has described how an accident during the third free practice session at the Monaco Grand Prix turned out to be the strangest of his career in Formula 1, leaving him out of qualifying in Q2.
The young driver lost control of his car in a dusty area of the circuit, specifically at the exit of the Massenet curve, colliding with the barriers and causing damage to the right side of his VF-26.
Bearman commented on the incident: “I picked up dust and lost it. It was the strangest accident I’ve had, as it wasn’t typical of the car or what had happened over the weekend. Suddenly, I was looking the other way; it was very strange.”
Despite the damage, the mechanics’ team managed to repair the car before qualifying. However, Bearman achieved his worst result of the season, finishing in 19th place after Gabriel Bortoleto crashed during Q1, interrupting his best lap. This forced him to attempt a last try on cold tires, which he only improved by 0.09 seconds, finishing 0.013 seconds below the cutoff for advancing to Q2.
The British driver expressed his disappointment: “The lap I was on when the yellow came out was enough to be in the top 10 at that moment of qualifying, which would have allowed us to advance to Q2 without problems. I was sure we could fight for Q3.”
Bearman added that his preparation over the weekend hadn’t matched the conditions at that moment: “After the red flag, we were queued for two and a half minutes; I had to do an ‘out-push’ with a new set of tires. Considering that during the rest of the weekend we had been preparing the laps, my tires were about 10 degrees too cold, so I was sliding all the way around the lap.”
At one point during qualifying, the broadcast showed Bearman sliding significantly in the pool section, where he himself acknowledged the lack of grip: “I was pushing at 110%, giving it my all, but the grip just wasn’t there. I was five tenths off my best time entering the tunnel.”
Written by FormulaRapidaAI
SourceID: SRC_415a1ed57ba9a848b735261e1c1fbb047422ec98