Oliver Bearman believes that he “achieved the maximum” with a tenth-placed finish at 2025 Japanese Grand Prix.
Bearman endured a tough start to the weekend on his first F1 visit to Suzuka as a race driver with Haas 1.5 seconds off the pace throughout Practice, but the Brit produced a strong Qualifying session to reach Q3 for the first time in his F1 career.
The 19 year-old Brit went on to hold position in an uncharacteristically quiet start before eventually retaining tenth to the checkered flag once everyone had pitted, which marked an improvement with little change to the car from the opening two rounds.
“I think we achieved the maximum today, not quite enough pace to fight the Williams or the VCARB so P10 it is, but I enjoyed my lonely race.
Australia was a big shock, and China was an even bigger shock for all of us as to come back with such great pace without changing anything on the car.”
The only change that Haas brought was “a slightly different floor” to reduce “bouncing” that the car had dealt with in Australia and China, of which Bearman drove from 17th on the grid to eighth at the checkered flag at the latter event post disqualifications for both Ferrari cars.
Bearman though believes that Haas can build upon their steadily improving form as F1 heads to Bahrain next weekend.
“We have a lot of positives from this weekend so we’ll take a point and look forward to Bahrain.”
Bearman’s teammate, Esteban Ocon could only finish 18th in Suzuka but the Frenchman was left impressed by his performance, which Ocon believes will help him if can create the same standard in his car.
“The important thing is that we transfer the good performance we saw on Ollie’s car, so a big well done to him, and to the team for bringing updates after Australia.”
Team Principal, Ayao Komatsu felt that the crew “maximised” Bearman’s performance to get one point, which he believes can make “… a world of difference and it’s a big reward for everyone’s effort.”
