Ollie Bearman Reveals Why Haas Must Take Risks After Austin Penalty

Ollie Bearman does not regret having tried to overtake Pierre Gasly at the United States Grand Prix. The British Haas driver, who received a ten-second penalty and suffered significant damage to his car after contact with the Alpine, defended his aggression as necessary for a team fighting to score points in the midfield.

"I went for the inside; he saw me because he left space, but for me it didn't seem enough. It was a bit of space but only half a car and by the time I committed, it wasn't disappearing so we made a bit of contact, I took an enormous amount of damage on my car, probably I also damaged Pierre's car. It was a shame because I felt massively penalized for it, and that damage ruined my race. I was losing a second per lap due to the aerodynamic load, and on top of that I took a penalty. In my opinion, it was a racing incident," Bearman declared.

The Briton explained that his action was deliberate and responded to Haas's need to take risks to compensate for its lack of pace: "To be honest, I don't regret having gone for the overtake because at this stage if we don't do something special and have a bit of luck, we are aggressive and go for it, then we are not going to score points because we are not fast enough to do it on merit," he added.

Gasly, for his part, finished tenth and saved a valuable point for Alpine, although he also suffered damage to his car that prevented him from fighting for Liam Lawson's ninth position: "I am happy because after the contact with Ollie, we had quite a lot of damage on the floor. It was a small touch honestly, and I didn't expect the floor to be so damaged after that. But considering the pace afterwards and the fact that we managed to keep P10, it is positive", the Frenchman noted.

The Alpine driver also considered that Bearman's maneuver was a little optimistic: "I think it was a little optimistic, not crazy, but a little optimistic. Unfortunately, there was that touch that cost us and probably cost between 5 and 10 seconds of race time afterward. It wasn't ideal, but he tried. It just wasn't the cleanest maneuver," Gasly explained.

Despite their differences of opinion, both drivers agreed the incident was part of the game and that the priority was to keep scoring points in the midfield battle. Bearman, who finally retired with damage, and Gasly, who saved a point, left the Austin episode behind with their sights set on the next events on the calendar.

The season enters its final stretch, and every point counts in a battle that is decided by details. All the teams know it, and Haas more than anyone: a solid finish to the year, staying calm and repeating what they did in the first half, with Ocon and Bearman measuring their attitudes on track, could completely change the championship balance.