Oliver Bearman fits right in with the big boys in career-best finish during Mexico Grand Prix

Photo Credit: Haas F1 Team

When a virtual safety car was deployed on the final laps of last weekend’s Mexico Grand Prix, Haas’ Oliver Bearman could breathe a sigh of relief. The 20-year-old driver thought he had held off World Drivers’ Championship contender Oscar Piastri for a fourth-place finish, the best result of his young career.

Not so fast…

Midway through the 71st and final lap, the virtual safety car ended, allowing the aggressive McLaren driver to fight back at Bearman one last time. However, Bearman stayed the course, doing what he did all race - battle with the big boys.

Bearman would finish in fourth, over one second ahead of Piastri, who was itching for every point he could get in the championship after another disappointing weekend on track. For Bearman, his weekend was very much the opposite.

“We were doing something right today,” said Oliver Bearman after the race. “Quality pace. I would stand by the fact that I’m really, really happy with it.”

Bearman would make it to the third qualifying session for the third consecutive race after an impressive showing on Saturday. The Briton qualified 10th but would start ninth due to Williams’ Carlos Sainz’s five-place grid penalty.

The 20-year-old would get off to a flying start in the race on Sunday, quickly finding himself up three places in sixth after the first few corners of the track. Bearman took advantage of cars ahead of him going off track and starting the race slowly. He passed the likes of Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli and Piastri.

On Lap 6, Bearman would make the move of the weekend. With Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen battling it out for third place, the 20-year-old would patiently wait for the perfect opportunity to pounce. With Hamilton and Verstappen going off the track to the left and Mercedes’ George Russell going off to the right, Bearman had an opening. He passed a sliding Verstappen on the inside, barely keeping his car on the road to get ahead of the four-time champion. After Hamilton received a 10-second penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage, Bearman found himself in third, a podium position.

“I could see it all unfolding in front of me,” Bearman said, “and I was like, ‘Okay, play it safe.’ Honestly, I can’t say what I was thinking, but I was feeling a bit scared, and then I was side-by-side and super-scared.

“When I was side by side [with Verstappen], I had my nose ahead, so I was not going to give it up. Then, actually, when I was leading the pack, I was scared that they would have much more pace than me, but I was able to hold them off and build up a bit of a buffer. I’m really happy with that and so proud of the team.”

Nothing could have prepared Bearman for the second stint from Verstappen. The reigning champion made his only pit stop on Lap 37, 13 laps after Bearman stopped. Hoping to have a significant tire advantage over Verstappen at the end of the race, Haas brought Bearman into the pits again on Lap 49, his second stop of the day. However, Verstappen managed his tires perfectly, holding more than a 10-second gap over Bearman until the end of the race, and even challenging Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc for second place.

While Bearman wasn’t able to finish on the podium, he got valuable experience racing against some of the best drivers in the sport at such a young age.

“I didn’t expect to be fighting against these top cars this year or at this stage of my career,” Beraman said. “But it gives me a great feeling for the future. And hopefully, that can be the normal thing.

“Honestly, I was s - - - ting myself, going side by side with Max, but it’s really cool to go relatively well with these people I’ve been following since I started watching F1. I have them in my mirrors during the race, it was probably the most pressure that I had so far.”

Bearman scored Haas’ highest finish since Romain Grosjean finished in fourth place in the 2018 Austrian Grand Prix. It was just the second fourth-place finish for the team since it began racing in F1 in 2016. Bearman’s teammate, Esteban Ocon, finished ninth, giving the team a double dose of points.

This big result has been on the horizon for the only American team on the grid. Bearman has finished outside the top 10 just twice since the summer break, placing ninth twice, sixth once, and now fourth once. Ocon has finished in the points six times this season, including a sixth-place result in the Chinese Grand Prix.

"We have always been there this season,” said Ayao Komatsu, Haas team principal, “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.”