Oliver Bearman has shared his frustrations with Haas’ 2026 Formula 1 challenger, explaining the constant changes in its characteristics compared to its predecessor.
The Brit has so far been unable to match the level of performances he showed in his first full year of F1, as he and teammate Esteban Ocon have struggled as the season has progressed.
The Silverstone-based squad’s VF-26 has steadily lost its competitiveness from the start of the season, and as a result, has lost ground in the midfield battle to Racing Bulls and Alpine.
On 18 points, Bearman enters this weekend’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix conscious of a potential Achilles’ heel being shown on the unique street circuit’s long straights.
Speaking to media ahead of the race in Baku, Bearman was asked how it has been grappling with the VF-26, and offered a frank and detailed response.
“Yeah, it’s really challenging because, of course, you have a good weekend where the car is feeling nice you take a lot of confidence from that you take a lot of the characteristics of the car, and you expect that to translate into the next weekend, and then you get on track for the next weekend and you’re driving a different car to what you were driving five days ago,” he said.
“So that’s a really strange feeling, and it almost feels like every time you get in the car you’re having to relearn what car you’re driving because it can feel very different whereas last year, at the end of the season, when we were really competitive, I could get in the car and my first lap in FP1 [would] already be within 95 percent of the limit, because I’ve driven five weekends where the car is exactly the same – we’re just changing the downforce level – but the characteristics are always the characteristics.”
Oliver Bearman bemoans ‘different beast’ from race to race
Using Abu Dhabi in 2025 as an example, Bearman further explained the predictability of the VF-25 compared to his current challenger.
“So, you get in the car in Abu Dhabi, you know exactly what car you’re going to have underneath you, so much so that you brake exactly where you think you’re going to be braking in quali on your first lap, because you know exactly how the car is going to perform,” he continued.
“But then you get in the car this year, and sometimes it’s performing really nicely and you can really push it to the limit and extract the maximum then next week you can get in the car and it’s not doing that at all and you’re wrestling a completely different beast, so it’s a big challenge and it’s really tough to get the most out of yourself as a result of that, and I’ve really struggled to find confidence in this car and push it to the limit every weekend.
“So it’s not been easy for either of us, especially the last few events where before, bringing the upgrade, we just haven’t simply been competitive enough to do anything interesting to score points to fight for the front of the midfield, so it’s been really challenging.”
Bearman will be hoping the track record of chaos in Baku will enable him a chance to challenge for points, having done so in his first race at the circuit as a stand-in for Kevin Magnussen in 2024.
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