British Grand Prix: Race Recap

Bearman was due to start from 18th on the grid but pitted at the end of the formation lap to take on Pirelli P Zero White hard tires, re-joining the race from the pit lane. The British rookie came in again on lap 11, when a shower passed through the circuit, taking on Pirelli Cinturato Green intermediate tires, before the race was neutralized due to heavy rain.

The restart lasted only half a lap before proceedings were again held under the safety car after Isack Hadjar spun into the wall. Bearman took the restart in 14th but was tipped into a spin by Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda, for which the Red Bull driver was penalized. Bearman stopped on lap 42 for Yellow medium tires and was able to continue after a collision with teammate Ocon. Bearman chased George Russell to the checkered flag – eventually finishing 11th.

Ocon took the start from 14th on intermediate tires and moved up to 13th position after contact with Liam Lawson on the opening lap, for which no further action was taken. Ocon moved into the top five as rain intensified before coming into the pits on lap 18, for more intermediate tires, the French racer re-joining in 16th position. Ocon pitted for medium tires on lap 43 and remained in the hunt for the top 10 before contact with teammate Bearman, dropping him to 13th place – which he retained through to the checkered flag.

MoneyGram Haas F1 Team holds ninth position in the Constructors’ Championship on 29 points.

Up front Lando Norris led Oscar Piastri for a McLaren one-two finish, with Nico Hulkenberg finishing third for Sauber.

Ollie Bearman:

“It was a tough race. We switched to slick in the early laps – in hindsight, that wasn’t the right choice with the rain coming, and we lost a lot of time throughout the race. I got tapped and spun around at one stage, but even with all that, we were P11 and fighting for the points, so it’s a real shame. We’ve been so fast this weekend and it’s just disappointing to end like that. They were tough conditions out there, and there’s only one racing line so I couldn’t overtake Russell at the end. The positives were that the car was fast, and I feel really confident with car balance and the step that the car has taken."

Esteban Ocon:

“It was an extremely frustrating race. From the beginning when I was in the middle of two cars, I thought there was going to be contact and as soon as I saw, I backed off but there wasn’t room for three cars. I glad everyone was okay and it was a miracle my car was fine, and after that we made all the right choices though we didn’t box for a new set of inters. That slipped through our hands and it’s not usually something that happens to me.The thing that happened with Ollie at the end I’m sad about – I’m sad for the team as well – as we both deserved more from today, we deserved to be in the points from where we came from, so we’ll review to improve.”

Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal:

“I can’t hide away from the fact that we executed a terrible race today, we have to be better. In terms of machinery, I think we have a good car now and it’s really competitive. Whether it’s competitive everywhere I don’t know, but in Silverstone with the upgrade – all credit to the team that made this happen – we have a strong car, and we’ve proved that. Today, however, we didn’t do justice to the car or the team, so there’s a lot to learn from as a group. It’s not just today, as a whole we need to focus on how we get a clean weekend together; we shouldn’t be starting from P14 and P18 where we’re then trying to force the result. We need to focus on executing three clean days on a race weekend and getting the result that our car deserves.

“On the incident with Ollie and Esteban today, well, our drivers' touching is the last thing that should happen – but I looked at the onboard of both drivers, I spoke with them both, and for me it was a racing incident. Again though, if you look at how they ended up in that situation, the pit stop timings for that stop were correct, so we pitted the lead car first. Ollie then went off in a high-speed corner, and that’s why he was behind his team-mate when Esteban came out after his stop. As Ollie had hotter tires than Esteban, we went for the overtake, but we shouldn’t have been in that position to start with. It just shouldn’t happen, and when they had different speeds or strategies, we’ve been swapping them over, and they’re complete team players – they don’t argue, and they do the job straight away. It’s a racing incident, but we’ll make sure it doesn’t happen again.”