Oliver Bearman has questioned the United States Grand Prix stewards’ judgement after being hit with a 10-second penalty for his collision with Pierre Gasly, describing the punishment as excessive for what he considered a racing incident.
The Haas drivers’ afternoon unravelled after an attempted pass on the Alpine driver at Turn 13 on the second lap at the Circuit of the Americas.
Bearman had gained two positions at the start and was looking to make further progress when he dived down the inside of Gasly, only for the gap to close as the pair approached the corner.
Bearman climbed onto the yellow inside kerb in an effort to avoid contact, but his front-left wheel struck Gasly’s sidepod. The seemingly minor touch had major consequences: both cars sustained floor damage, while the stewards handed Bearman a 10-second penalty that left the Briton questioning the consistency of their decisions.
Bearman questions stewards’ verdict
The 20-year-old made no secret of his displeasure after the race, arguing that he had earned the right to space and had done what he could to avoid the collision.
“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.
“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.”
Damage that progressively worsened
The penalty was only part of Bearman’s misery. The damage to his Haas progressively worsened, eventually forcing him to surrender position to team-mate Esteban Ocon before retiring on lap 24.
“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.”
Read also: F1i Driver Ratings for the 2026 United States Grand PrixBearman’s race ultimately ended on lap 24 of 56 when the deteriorating car became too unpredictable to continue pushing.
“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.”
Gasly left wondering what might have been
Gasly, meanwhile, managed to bring his Alpine home in 10th place, but he too was left counting the cost of the encounter.
The Frenchman finished eight seconds behind Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson, with the damage to his floor compromising his ability to fight for a stronger result.
“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,” Gasly recounted.
“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.”
The clash left both drivers frustrated for different reasons: Bearman believes the penalty was disproportionate, while Gasly was denied a cleaner run at Lawson.
For Haas, the retirement was an additional blow in its battle with Audi in the constructors’ standings, and Bearman will leave Austin convinced that one aggressive move cost him far more than it should have.
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