F1 driver faces Spanish GP grid uncertainty after heavy Madring crash

Haas has yet to learn whether Oliver Bearman will have to start the Spanish Grand Prix from the pit lane, following a heavy crash in Saturday’s final practice that kept him out of qualifying.

Although he was deemed eligible to start the race by the stewards, team principal Ayao Komatsu is not “100 per cent” certain about where exactly his driver will start – the grid or the pit lane.

Oliver Bearman faces Spanish Grand Prix start uncertainty

Putting in a qualifying simulation in the final minutes of FP3, Bearman clipped the barriers with his right-front tyre on the entry to the La Monumental corner, sending his VF-26 into a spin.

He hit the barriers heavily side-on with the left-hand side of the car, causing significant damage to both the front and rear of his VF-26.

Haas had just two hours to repair Bearman’s crash before qualifying, after FP3 ran long as it was temporarily suspended while track staff worked to repair a barrier that Lewis Hamilton had damaged when he crashed earlier in the session.

However, given the severity of the damage, Haas announced that Bearman would “not participate in qualifying as a result of the damage sustained to his VF-26”.

Komatsu wasn’t holding the crash against his British racer.

“Yeah it’s, look, he’s such a fast driver. He’s always on the edge, and he just was wrong side of it unfortunately today, which he doesn’t do very often,” the Haas team principal told PlanetF1.com and other accredited media.

“So, yeah, and then that is we as P7 the championship at this minute is largely thanks to him as well.

“So you can’t just look at this and then blame him.

“When we say that we can do this together, that’s true. So yeah, we come out of it by.

“Just such a shame it happened on the weekend that we were actually reasonably competitive.”

Although Bearman did not set a lap time in qualifying, he has been declared “eligible to start the race” by the FIA stewards.

But confirming that Bearman’s VF-26 had suffered “quite a lot” of damage, including to the “chassis”, Komatsu said Haas was in talks with the FIA about whether his driver could take his place on the grid, or whether he’d have to start from the pit lane.

“This is a discussion actually,” he said. “Even like visiting FIA, it’s not clear on the sporting or technical side.

“So I can’t tell you 100 per cent at this minute.

“We’ve done everything possible to start on the grid. But yeah, we’ll see.”

Under parc fermé conditions, which even applied to Bearman as a car that fails to leave the pit lane is deemed to enter parc fermé at the end of Q1, the rule states that teams may work on the car if “damage sustained as a result of contact with a barrier”.

Article B3.5.3b then explains that a “change of car, as defined in Article B8.1.2, if that car has suffered genuine accident damage or has suffered a significant failure or fault, as defined in Article B8.1.1, necessitating a change of survival cell.

“All components of the replacement Car must be the same in design and similar in mass, inertia, and function to the original Car. The set-up of the suspension must be the same.”

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As for Bearman, whether he starts from the grid or the pit lane, the Briton is hoping to put in a redemption drive.

Explaining the crash, Bearman told PlanetF1.com and other accredited media at the Madring: “I just got really caught out by this by this gust of wind in Turn 10, which pushed me out.

“That’s not an excuse. It’s just the facts.”

Revealing that it is his VF-26’s “impact structure which needs to be replaced”, Bearman added: “It hurts more because it’s been on a weekend where the car is competitive. So I can only apologise to the team.”

The Briton is provisionally set to start the Grand Prix 21st on the grid as Lance Stroll, who also didn’t set a time in qualifying, has a 40-place engine penalty meaning he is automatically dropped to last on the grid.

“We will make the best out of the situation,” Bearman said. “It’s going to be a tough race starting from the back, but we’ve looked really fast for the weekend, so it’s definitely not over.

“We’ll try and dust ourselves off, and we start again.”

He added: “We’ll do our very best tomorrow to alternate and do something because there’s no doubt that the pace is there, but it will be a tough one.”

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

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