Bearman and Lawson’s woes continue with pit lane start in Australian GP
Oliver Bearman had a difficult opening weekend in Melbourne
Oliver Bearman and Liam Lawson have suffered yet another setback, with the two rookies set to start the Australian Grand Prix from the pit lane.
Bearman’s suspension setup was changed by Haas, while Lawson’s RB21 was fitted with a new rear wing and rear beam wing.
Bearman and Lawson ‘required to start from pit lane’
Having impressed last year when he made three substitute appearances, one for Ferrari and two for Haas, and scored in two of those, Bearman’s chances of a top-ten result in Melbourne may depend on the weather.
Crashing in the weekend’s opening practice, Bearman caused significant damage to his VF-25 which meant he wasn’t able to take part in Friday’s second session.
FP3 didn’t any better as he spun and beached the car before a gearbox problem forced him out of Q1 without setting a lap time.
“It’s a pretty unforgiving circuit and two seemingly small errors giving big consequences and missing out on all of my running,” Bearman said, holding up his hand.
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“It was clumsiness from my side to make these errors, honestly, and that’s not good enough.
“And then of course the gearbox issue and the qualifying pretty much sums up what we’ve had so far.”
Now it has emerged he’ll have to start from the pit lane after Haas changed suspension set-up on his car.
A breach of Article 40.9 a) of the FIA Formula One Sporting Regulations, the FIA document read: “The setup of the suspension has been changed while under Parc Ferme.
“MoneyGram Haas F1 Team changed the setup of the suspension of Car 87 under Parc Ferme, this not being in accordance with Article 40.9 of the FIA Formula One Sporting Regulations.
“Car 87 is therefore required to start the Race from pit lane.”
Shortly after it was announced that he would have company as Lawson would also be starting from the pit lane.
“The rear wing and rear beam wing of car number 30 were changed to ones of a different specification,” read the FIA’s notes.
“Therefore car number 30 should now be required to start the Race from the pit lane according to Article 40.9 a) of the 2025 Formula One Sporting Regulations.”
The good news for Bearman and Lawson is Formula 1 is expecting a wet race on Sunday and none of the drivers have done any wet laps in their new F1 2025 cars.
Read next: F1 starting grid: What is the grid order for the 2025 Australian Grand Prix?
