Oliver Bearman was surprised to reach Q2 at the Barcelona Grand Prix after battling the “worst” Formula 1 car he’s ever driven that morning in final practice.
The Haas driver will start Sunday’s contest in 15th for what is his best qualifying result since the Miami Grand Prix, where he took 13th en route to 11th in that race.
But the 21-year-old feared a Q1 exit in Spain after overnight car tweaks backfired for Haas, leaving Bearman to struggle with the VF-26 in FP3 as he finished 17th heading into qualifying.
The saving grace for the Briton was completing the joint-most laps in Q1 – nine – to eventually finish 11th and progress into Q2, which proved to be the limit of what his car could achieve.
“This morning, I don’t know what we did to the car, but it was the worst car I’ve ever driven in my life – it was terrible,” said Bearman.
“So, we were all going into Q1 absolutely blind. Honestly, I was expecting to be out. If I had the car I had in FP3, I would have probably crashed.
Oliver Bearman, Haas F1 Team
Photo by: Simon Galloway / LAT Images via Getty Images
“It was just so difficult, challenging, unpredictable, and horrible, frankly. So we need to understand exactly why, because we didn’t really change much at all. It’s just telling us that this car has an incredibly narrow window.
“We put it back in that small knife-edge window, and the performance is better, but we’re still missing. We still want to be, of course, further in front, fighting cars ahead.
“So we’ve got some work to do. We found out a lot of new things about this car this weekend, and honestly, I was expecting slightly more performance.”
Bearman revealed it is in the corners where he thinks Haas is lacking across one-lap, but he is more confident by its long-run pace – placing seventh on the FP2 averages.
But with the Briton in 15th and team-mate Esteban Ocon starting 17th, a third, consecutive points finish is unlikely for the American outfit – which is seventh in the championship.
“I was quite happy with the long run pace yesterday,” added Bearman. “It felt competitive, so I think we’re going to be in a better place. I hope so, at least.
“I don’t think we’re going to fight for the points on merit, but we’ve seen how much chaos can happen. So we’re going to be in it, and hopefully fighting for the best position possible.”
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