F1 driver makes ‘silly’ admission after Martin Brundle criticises ‘crazy’ incident
Sky F1 commentator Martin Brundle is widely regarded as the voice of Formula 1
Haas driver Oliver Bearman has acknowledged that he “let my team down” after picking up a 10-place grid penalty for a red-flag infringement at the British Grand Prix.
It comes after Martin Brundle, the Sky F1 pundit, described Bearman’s accident under red flags at Silverstone as “crazy” and “mad.”
Oliver Bearman admits ‘silly error’ after Martin Brundle criticism
Additional reporting by Thomas Maher
Bearman crashed on entry to the pit lane under red flags in final practice at the British Grand Prix on Saturday, with the FIA stewards taking a dim view of the incident.
The British driver was hit with a 10-place grid penalty for Sunday’s race, dropping him from eighth on the grid to 18th.
Bearman was also handed four penalty points on his Super Licence, moving him to eight points for the current 12-month window.
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An automatic one-race ban is triggered if a driver accumulates 12 penalty points in a rolling 12-month period, with Bearman’s predecessor Kevin Magnussen becoming the first to be banned under the system last year.
Brundle was a vocal critic of Bearman’s mistake on Saturday at Silverstone, describing the rookie’s error as “mad.”
Appearing on Sky F1’s coverage of qualifying, Brundle said: “He’s shown good speed in his rookie season, but that was crazy.
“You’re going past a red flashing panel, accelerating like crazy to try pit in and the stewards report says he was even faster on that trial [at] pit in – because you’ve got to keep pounding along until you get to the speed limit – than he was on an earlier trial.
“So that’s why they’ve hit him so hard, because you don’t know if there’s going to be marshals, if there’s another incident, if there’s something coming around there, whatever.
“You don’t know what the red flag is for, so to accelerate like that? Mad.”
Speaking to media including PlanetF1.com after qualifying, Bearman conceded that he had made a “silly” mistake.
And he admitted that he had let Haas down after his impressive qualifying result was undone.
He said: “Cold brakes and tyres. So a silly error, one that shouldn’t have happened.
“Just a misjudgement from my side really.”
Asked how it feels to be hit with such a severe penalty after an impressive result, he added: “Mixed. Mixed, for sure.
“On one hand, we brought an upgrade this weekend and clearly it’s showing potential because our qualifying pace has not been fantastic recently.
“And now to be in Q3 on merit is a good feeling. I only did one new set of tyres in Q2 as well, which normally only the top teams do, so we actually had a very, very strong qualifying and the car was feeling great, the best it’s ever felt for me.
“Then, of course, I’m really disappointed in myself because I’ve let my team down today.”
With Bearman’s tally of eight penalty points not set to decrease until November at the earliest, the 20-year-old will be racing under the threat of a race ban for some time.
Pressed on the matter, he said: “Yes, but let’s move on.”
More on Oliver Bearman and Haas from PlanetF1.com
Bearman expressed hope that he could salvage some points from Sunday’s race after Haas’s latest upgrade package provided an instant impact at Silverstone.
He said: “I’m still angry at myself and very sad, but I’m glad at least that we could show a good thing today.
“We have a quick car in qualifying trim, which hasn’t been the case more recently, so I’m really proud of the team for bringing a successful upgrade.
“If we have a car that’s P8 in qualifying, it means we have a very quick race car because normally our quali car is not quite as fast as our race car, so hopefully that stays and we can have a good one tomorrow.”
Asked how he plans to reset ahead of race day, he added: “Have a nice dinner, spend time with my family and my girlfriend and think about anything other than FP3 today.”
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