Oliver Bearman and Esteban Ocon left disappointed after separate penalties in F1 Qatar GP, which has wrecked their chances in constructors’ championship.
Neither of the Haas drivers were inside the Top 10 in F1 Qatar GP, but they were left disappointed by double penalties for separate incidents. Bearman was closest to points places when he had a penalty for unsafe release. The moment was only shown on the world feed via his onboard.
His wheel was not attached properly and he realised immediately to stop just outside his pit stop mark. But it was still taken as unsafe release, which surprised the Brit. He felt he did whatever he could and that they didn’t leave the pitlane either, but still got the harshest penalty.
“Well, I got the green light but the rear left was not fully attached yet so, and when I left there it was not on,” recalled Bearman to media. “Yeah, I went about a meter and apparently that’s unsafe. I mean I think it was pretty clear that the car was not going to go anywhere with three wheels so, that’s what I said on the radio.
“I mean, I hardly left the box before I got a penalty. But the race was over anyway after the stop so it doesn’t matter,” summed up Bearman, as teammate Ocon was left surprised by his own penalty as well. He had a slight movement on the grid ahead of the start. He thought he did the same thing for 100 races now and never had any sort of penalty before.
His issues were compounded when he was handed a second penalty for not serving the earlier penalty correctly. It destroyed any chances of a fightback in the end. “I’m amazed about that penalty,” said Ocon to media. “I don’t know what to say. It’s probably similar to the one I got two years ago with the wrong position in the box. It’s just new rules that they come about with.
“I’ve done 100 plus starts and I’ve always done the same thing. The only place where we have to apply the brakes is either Suzuka, Spa, or it’s clearly uphill or downhill. But yeah, if the car was rolling forward then it’s just that you put 12,000 RPM and obviously if the clutch is slightly touching or engaging, then maybe you’re crawling slightly forward.
“But it’s nothing like a gain or anything, so I don’t know where that came from really. But it happened to not only me, also Antonelli last race, something that we have to learn on and put new procedures on. But we didn’t see that one coming and it completely killed our race really. So that was it. If that’s the rule, then we’ll put something in place for it not to happen.
“I’m 100% engaged with the clutch, going on power. It’s maybe just the vibration of the engine, that’s making the car roll forward. It’s that small. So we are not talking about 1 kph here, we’re talking about 0.1 kph maybe. So, it’s extremely small. But if that’s the rule, then we work and comply with it. But yeah, disappointing,” summed up Ocon.
Here’s pit stop from Oliver Bearman: https://www.formula1.com/en/video/2025-qatar-grand-prix-bearman-furious-after-botched-haas-pit-stop.1850243152022446530