Oliver Bearman has discussed how his approach to driving could change, as he sits just two points away from a Formula 1 race ban.
The Brit has enjoyed plenty of positive moments in his debut F1 season this year, scoring points among plenty of impressive drives at his new stable Haas.
But Bearman has accumulated a plethora of penalty points, the most recent coming from his collision with Carlos Sainz at the Italian Grand Prix last time out.
The Spaniard and the Brit came together at the Variane della Roggia chicane at Monza, causing the Williams to spin, ruining his chances of points.
This led to the stewards deeming that Bearman didn’t allow the Spaniard enough space, handing him two further penalty points.
Speaking ahead of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix this weekend, Bearman quipped, in reference to his and Sainz’s on-track placing: “I guess now if I’m on the outside I’ll just go for it, no?”
Although Bearman disagreed with the premise of the penalty, he admitted that it is under the guidelines, but opined it is not conducive to the principles of drivers in their youth.
“It’s my fault for getting the penalty regardless of if we agree with the rules or not,” he said. “But it’s a tough one to take. That’s not how any of us have grown up racing, really.
“The rules are the rules. I think as a racing driver and as a fan. It’s tough to take that penalty – because from my side, at no point was I out of control.
“I was totally just racing to the corner with another driver, and then I didn’t get left any space at all.
“In the end, that’s what the rules state. So I do feel a little hard done by.”
Bearman added: “Imagine you’re going into the corner, you have a guy alongside you.
“You’re deciding, ‘OK, I’m going to fight for this corner’. Because in my situation [at Monza] he [Sainz] was a bit faster than me, but it wasn’t like he was catching me one second a lap.
“If I could have stayed in front in that corner, I would have been able to stay in front until the end of the race. So I had every intention to fight for the move.”
Bearman says F1 drivers race ‘like you’ve been brought up’
Bearman noted that drivers aren’t thinking about the regulations when they’re driving, theorising that they are focused on getting the move done, keeping in line with how they’ve raced throughout the junior categories.
“And in that split second where you brake and you see how fast you’re entering the corner with respect to your competitor, you don’t then think about the three-page guideline they sent you in January,” he said. “It’s not possible.
“So you race to the corner like you know how, like you’ve been brought up doing. In my situation, I expected a bit more space, but that’s how it went.”
For Bearman, it’s left him on the precipice of a race ban, something that plagued his predecessor, Kevin Magnussen.
The Dane received a race ban for Baku last year, which subsequently allowed Bearman to get behind the wheel of the Haas for the first time, scoring one point.
However, Bearman is hoping to avoid that for himself, as has four races to keep himself out of trouble, at which point he’ll fall back to ten penalty points.
Looking to Baku and the coming rounds, the Brit mused that he would be changing his approach to keep himself from a ban.
“I would hope to get given space on the inside, but clearly there’s a possibility that that won’t happen. So I can’t take that risk,” he said.
“It’s a shame. I guess I’ll just go around the outside now…”
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