Oliver Bearman relishes F1 Mexico GP result, especially the fight against lead cars, as Esteban Ocon not so happy with Yuki Tsunoda even though he scored to Haas double.
Haas’ Bearman didn’t sound too great after Friday and Saturday where he lamented giving up FP1 to rookie which cost him in learning aspect to start F1 Mexico GP. He qualified inside the Top 10, but he wasn’t happy with his decision to skip the first session – a decision he made back in January.
But his run transformed on Sunday when he made a good start and found himself in third among the front-runners early in the grand prix. He made the most of the opportunity presented when the likes of Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen, George Russell, Andrea Kimi Antonelli and Oscar Piastri slipped.
The fight between Hamilton and Verstappen allowed him to sneak into third at Turn 4. He fended off the Dutchman as much but the one-stop from Red Bull denied Bearman a chance to step up on the podium. He resisted pressure from both the Mercedes drivers along with Piastri in the end.
Haas switched to two-stops as well, with the crew doing a fantastic job under pressure to deny any way through in the pits. The strategy surprised Bearman a bit but it ensured that he didn’t lose out on old tyres, especially when Russell, Antonelli and Piastri pitted behind him.
It was not easy to handle the likes of Verstappen along with Mercedes drivers, but he managed to do so. “Yeah, I had a good start,” said Bearman to media. “I slotted myself between the two Mercs, I think, and then actually, in those laps, I had good pace. I was able to stay in DRS. And then Hamilton and Max had a bit got together and I benefitted from that too.
“Honestly, I was sh*tting myself going side by side with Max, but it’s really cool to go wheel to wheel with these people that I’ve been watching since I started watching F1. And I had him in my mirrors for a long time, so it was probably the most pressure I’ve ever had in a race scenario. At points on that medium, I was, from what we understood, I was bringing that tyre to the end until I got called to box.
“I need to look back at exactly what happened, but I think in our position, it would have been a bit risky trying to stay out and go for the podium and potentially finish sixth or seventh. I think we did the right choice by consolidating, even if it maybe stopped us from having the chance of a podium. But, we finished fourth still. It’s not bad.
“As I said, I got the call to box very late and I was super confused, but I’m not going to, go against the team order. I need to take a look but it seems like we would have been taking a big risk to stay out and try and finish third. And that potentially could have cost us more than fourth; we could have been further back, so I think we did the right job.
“It’s cool and I didn’t expect to be fighting against these top cars this year or this stage of my career. But it gives me a great feeling for the future, and hopefully that can be the normal thing instead of a one-off. I was looking for Haas’s first podium. That was my goal. But fourth is great as well. And two cars in the points. That’s a great result for us,” summed up Bearman.
Even thought the car had pace, Bearman conceded that luck played a big factor too, because there was a chance that he was only eighth or ninth, if not for the Lap 5 move. The points haul helped Haas to overtake Sauber (60) in the standings to be eighth with 62 points, as they chase Aston Martin (69) for seventh.
“Definitely it was luck, if I finished Lap 5 in P10 like I started then I probably would have finished ninth or eighth,” continued Bearman. “But luckily we managed to put the car in the right place and sometimes that happens, you get lucky, I’ll take it everytime. But also we had the pace to stay there, I had Max behind me in the first stint and then I had Kimi, I had George, I had Oscar, who couldn’t attack me.
“We did something right. The quali pace, the lap I did, I’ll stand by the fact that I am really-really happy with it, so the gap to the front is little bit too big than quali spec but that has somehow paid dividend in the race, now we need to understand if we can strike the balance a bit more in favour of qualifying for future races. Every single point in the constructors’ is super valuable, and that can’t be denied. So to jump back into eighth is great, and we keep our eyes forward for the next four races,” summed up Bearman.
Teammate Ocon ended up ninth to score those two crucial points to get ahead of Sauber in the end. He made the one stop work despite early hit and getting stuck behind Tsunoda. “Very happy overall, I think as a whole it’s fantastic for the team, and really shows that we had a great car pace this weekend,” he said to media. “I really tried to maximise the pace we had. We got unlucky with quite a lot of things.
“The start, I got touched [by Alonso]. I got stuck behind Yuki, who was defending like I’ve never seen. I defended on Oscar, trying to protect Ollie. I made him lose quite a few seconds with that fight, between four to six, so that was quite good. Overall, the car was working super well. I’m happy with our performance this weekend and our learning.
“Obviously it didn’t smile to us, the luck, every session. But I think we can be pleased with what we did. It is a big day obviously. We didn’t get full rewards with the update that we should have had, I think the pace for us this weekend was very good. We didn’t show everything that there was, so there was some left on the table but it definitely feels good to have that behind us.
“I hope it is not just track related, we are going to see in Interlagos how it is, the track that I look forward to and I hope that we can perform the similar way,” summed up Ocon. When asked about what happened with Tsunoda, the Frenchman noted that he potentially moved under braking. This comes after teammate Bearman lost against the Japanese in Austin, while he tried to overtake him.
The Brit called him out and noted that he moved under braking at that time. “He moved under braking, that was the point,” said Ocon. “And unfortunately, he was the one also giving me a sh*t quali — which… that was not his fault to be fair. I always seem to catch him in the wrong place at the wrong time and basically that damaged our race because we must have lost like eight or nine seconds stuck behind him in that first stint and I couldn’t get by.
“Once we cleared him, then we could stretch our legs and it was much better, but it was too late.” Team boss Ayao Komatsu was happy with the double points, as Bearman equaled Haas’ best result of fourth in the hands of Romain Grosjean back in 2018 in Austria. The Japanese had praise for the youngster and also veteran in the team to score valuable points.
“We always saw huge talent, and every single time, we are learning and improving, and since Singapore, he has been putting weekends together,” said Komatsu to TV media. “Austin, there were a couple of things in the Sprint race, but other than that, he was mega. But here, what can I say? He hasn’t put a foot wrong. It’s just amazing.
“After the pit stops, we were fighting against Russell and Piastri – a Mercedes and McLaren. What a privilege to fight those guys. And just to hold him, what a fantastic job. We have always been there this season, fighting and never had a big result. What a team effort.
“Ollie drove fantastic and gave us completely the right information, the strategy guys did an amazing job – race engineer, performance engineer, everyone gave the right information to the driver communicating, so it was just a huge team effort, and finally, we managed to get a big result. Then to get both drivers in the points, it’s just amazing,” summed up Komatsu.
Here’s Oliver Bearman’s moments in Mexico GP: https://www.formula1.com/en/video/2025-mexico-city-grand-prix-bearman-pounces-on-verstappen-to-snatch-p4-on-lap-6.1847077779633738713
Here’s Esteban Ocon against Alexander Albon: https://www.formula1.com/en/video/2025-mexico-city-grand-prix-ocon-muscles-his-way-past-albon-for-p11.1847098036001933843
Here’s how F1 Mexico GP panned out
Here’s Oscar Piastri on Oliver Bearman
Here’s Max Verstappen on Oliver Bearman
Here’s Mercedes pair on Oliver Bearman