What's behind "absolute nonsense" Oliver Bearman contract rumours

Formula 1's driver-contract season was thought to be long over, but a bizarre claim about one of the few remaining out-of-contract drivers has gained surprising traction in the run-up to the Mexico Grand Prix weekend.

The Haas F1 team has already announced Esteban Ocon's exit in favour of Formula 2 frontrunner Rafael Camara next season, but an apparent delay in confirming Oliver Bearman for 2027 has prompted speculation to fill the vacuum. Among the more outlandish claims has been that Bearman's management is demanding a fee of €6million.

It's understood the source of this figure is an amateur blogger purporting to have inside information on F1 business matters, and the claim has then been amplified without substantiation by other websites and social media ‘influencers'. As with many such stories, it then passed a threshold of repetition where it became accepted as fact.

Naturally Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu responded with manifest irritation when he was asked in the FIA's Friday press conference about Bearman's supposed demands.

"Can you clarify, do you understand where that comes from? No? Exactly. Neither do I," Komatsu said.

Formula 1What’s the state of play at F1’s smallest team?

"I have no idea where that comes from. I've experienced it sometimes this season as well – people say there's no smoke without fire but there really are some people who will invent a story.

"You know what happened in Miami, apparently I had argument with Esteban Ocon – that's just absolutely zero truth in there. And even those people claiming that they have some insider information – absolute total nonsense.

"And this one, again, I don't know who smoked up this €6million number. The first time I saw it was on Instagram or something that Stu [Morrison, head of communications] forwarded to me. I was just like, ‘Oh great, somebody thought this is a good thing to stir whatever up'.

"I have no comment to make because it's just not even close to the truth. Why do we engage in such absolute nonsense, what's the point of it? Those people are clearly not trying to get anything right, it's amazing these days that people don't check the source – ‘So, OK, I want to get some more clicks, I want to get some more likes', so they cut and paste those stories and keep running with it. And then before you know it there are 20 people running the stories and they think it's the truth – it's absolute nonsense."

Ayao Komatsu, Haas F1 Team

Photo by: Alex Pantling / LAT Images via Getty Images

Motorsport.com understands that the delay in agreeing terms has rather more complicated roots. According to Ferrari insiders, Bearman's management have been pushing for assurances that he has a pathway to a race seat with the Scuderia in 2028, on the assumption that Lewis Hamilton will retire.

As reported last week, Camara's promotion to an F1 drive with Haas means Bearman now has a direct rival – should a Ferrari seat become available. The longer the wait, the more experience Camara gains.

"I don't like to go into the details of our contract, but Ollie is showing amazing potential," said Komatsu. "He's contributing a lot to the team's success and we want to grow together. We want to move up the grid as a team.

"So, first and foremost we need a competitive car for '27. It's not going to be an easy challenge because in '26 we made a mistake, so that's paying the price for '27 as well. But our focus is really to maximize everything under our control, really trying to roll out a competitive '27 car."

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- The Motorsport.com Team