Oliver Bearman says he learned useful lessons from an “impressively strange” Formula 1 Sao Paulo GP weekend at Interlagos – and has no regrets about losing his Formula 1 rookie status.
The future Haas race driver was called in at the last minute when Kevin Magnussen was taken ill, having already contested the Azerbaijan for the team when the Dane was on a ban.
He not only had to go straight into a sprint but also then had the experience of Sunday wet qualifying followed by a wet race.
The VF-24 proved tricky to drive in the race, and after picking up a 10-second penalty for contact with Franco Colapinto he had a spin and a touch with the barrier. Despite that he still managed to finish in 12th place.
“It’s been a crazy weekend, that’s for sure,” he said. “Especially with the weather, with a different format, it’s been impressively strange.
“But that’s good for me to learn new things. And doing a race in the wet is very rare in F1, so I need to kind of make the most of all of them, and take all of the lapses as great experience.”
Having done three races Bearman can no longer be the rookie driver for Haas for a full day at the Abu Dhabi post-season test, although he can still share the Pirelli test car duties with Esteban Ocon.
However he admitted that a race weekend was actually more useful.
“Exactly,” he said when asked about the subject by this writer. “Racing in a race with other cars is much more useful than a test.
“And I got to learn the track, which I wasn’t going to be able to do without this race. And racing under these conditions is always tough. And I definitely learned a lot.”
On the in-lap at Interlagos Bearman apologised to the team for the mistakes he made, although he was reminded that it was probably the most difficult event he’s ever had do to.
“It’s tough because I didn’t deliver a very good race, and made a lot of mistakes,” he said. “But if you look at the grid and the amount of people that actually finished the race first of all, the amount of people that did mistakes was very low.
“So of course, to be the best and to score points today, I needed to stay on track the whole time. And unfortunately, I didn’t do that. I made too many mistakes. It’s definitely tough conditions, but I still wasn’t good enough today.”
He acknowledged that the Haas wasn’t easy to drive in the wet.
“I feel a bit less confident in the car on the inters,” he said. “Especially at high-speed, the car is a bit less predictable, which is never a nice feeling in these slippery conditions.
“But I think everyone has similar issues, and it’s tough to really say where we stand on wets, because it’s sometimes a bit less about the car, and a bit more about the whole package.
“Front-locking was an issue all of the day, even in qualifying, it was quite a limitation. And it’s really tough to get confidence in the car when the front tyres seem to lock at a tiny bit more brake pressure.
“So this is really difficult to manage, and difficult to get confidence in the car. And a lot of my mistakes today came from front locking, and once you lock the tyre, it’s really game over. You’re out of the track.”
Regarding the Colapinto penalty he said: “I thought that was a bit harsh. I hit him, he didn’t even feel me, like I hardly touched him, nothing happened to him.
“I lost 10 seconds, and then I got a 10-second penalty for losing 10 seconds. So it was really harsh, in my opinion.”
Ferrari team boss Fred Vasseur agreed that Interlagos provided a good education for Bearman.
“For sure for a rookie this kind of weekend, it’s more than difficult,” he said when asked for his views by this writer.
“You have no preparation, you jump into the car on Friday morning. But he did a very good job in FP1, SQ1, SQ2, I think SQ3 he had an issue.
“He did very well. And then [in the race] it was so chaotic for everybody. It’s not just about Ollie. But I think as you said, it’s a good lesson, a good experience, and this one is important to take.”