‘I couldn’t disappear’ – Oliver Bearman rues “crazy” penalty for Pierre Gasly clash

Oliver Bearman says he was “pretty shocked” to land a 10-second penalty for his collision with Pierre Gasly in Formula 1’s United States Grand Prix.

Bearman gained two spots on the opening lap of the Austin race and made a move on 10th-placed Gasly on the next tour, down the inside in Turn 13.

Realising the gap was disappearing, Bearman put two wheels on the yellow inside kerb, but his front-left wheel still touched the Alpine’s sidepod; the contact, albeit tenuous, caused significant damage to both cars, and FIA stewards hit the Briton with that 10-second penalty.

“I was pretty shocked to be honest,” Bearman said. “If anything, it was a racing incident. I felt a bit hard done by for it to be a 10-second penalty as well, especially given some of the incidents that have happened this year that have gone either unpenalized or five-second penalty. Ten seconds for that type of incident seems very excessive in my opinion, given what happened.

“I felt like I had enough of my car alongside to justify, or to kind of feel like I earned a bit of space, and didn't really get that space. I was given maybe half a car width. I was climbing up onto the kerb trying to avoid contact, but I simply couldn't. I couldn't disappear once I decided to go for the move. I didn't lock up, I didn't lose any control, it was just simply I couldn't disappear at that stage. Ten seconds is crazy, given all of those facts.

Oliver Bearman, Haas F1 Team

Photo by: Simon Galloway / LAT Images via Getty Images

“To be honest, the more penalizing thing was that I picked up a bit of damage. It was a very small touch, but it loosened basically the floorboard and that slowly vibrated its way off over the next few laps, and the car was just deteriorating. I had maybe five laps where I was actually feeling very good and everything was fine and then slowly, step by step, the car was getting worse and then it was game over basically.”

The damage led Bearman to let team-mate Esteban Ocon through on lap 11.

“Pierre overtook me and I still felt relatively competitive,” the Haas driver continued. “The gap was very stable between Pierre in front and Esteban behind; it was just over one second.

“But then from one lap to the next, we saw something fall off the car. And in sector one, I lost something like eight tenths to myself from one lap to the next. It was very clear that suddenly I went from having a bit of damage on the car to having a catastrophic amount of damage on the car.

“I just said, ‘I'm not in this race anymore, I'm going to let Esteban go’. He was coming past, I just didn't want to hold him up because that's not what I'm racing for. We're racing as a team to try and beat Audi, so I let him go at the earliest opportunity.”

Bearman eventually retired from the race on lap 24 as a direct consequence of the earlier collision. “It was getting worse, it was getting dangerous,” he said. “I mean, the car was very unpredictable, and on top of that, you know, mileage on the engine and all of the parts are important.”

Photo by: James Sutton / LAT Images via Getty Images

Meanwhile, Gasly held on to that 10th position with an eight-second deficit to Liam Lawson under the chequered flag, but he felt the clash with Bearman had prevented him from challenging the Racing Bulls.

“It was a small touch, but it just took quite a big chunk out of our right part of the floor, like on the front of the floor and then the mid part of it; I think we were down close to 10 [downforce] points, so it didn't really make our afternoon very easy,” the Frenchman said.

“Pleased, considering that we were 10th. Just, I would have liked to see what would have been possible against Liam without that damage. We'll never know.”

Additional reporting by Ronald Vording

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