Oliver Bearman was frustrated despite qualifying eighth for Formula 1‘s Sao Paulo Grand Prix as a sudden dip in Q3 denied him a chance to land a headline result.
In his second trip to Interlagos, Bearman showed incredible pace in the early stages of Brazilian qualifying.
The 20-year-old was consistently in the mix with the front-runners, cementing himself as a potential threat in the top five.
However, as the final stage of qualifying came around, Bearman’s pace regressed, seeing him drop to eighth in the classification as others improved on their last laps.
Despite delivering two laps that he described as “really strong” in the top-10 shootout, Bearman couldn’t replicate the time he had extracted during his earlier runs.
“For me, the main difficulty was that I had a great feeling throughout Q1 and Q2, and it just wasn’t quite there in Q3,” he explained to media, including Motorsport Week.
“I saw a lot of people struggling, out of position on that soft tyre. It seemed to be a difficult tyre today.”
Bearman believes that his faster out-laps in the final stage of qualifying contributed to a lack of grip needed in the final flying laps.
“Maybe we were too hot with it in Q3 because I was doing slightly faster out-laps,” he continued.
“Honestly, the two laps I did in Q3, I was incredibly happy with, but I saw two tenths slower on my delta compared to what I managed in Q2. So it was really strange.”
Understanding his Q3 drop-off
Bearman theorised that tyre grip may have been the underlying cause, a problem that also caught out several others, including reigning champion Max Verstappen.
“I mean, it [the tyres] could be too hot,” he suggested.
“That’s the thing that’s standing out for me right now because I had a few occasions in Turn 1 where I didn’t feel my tyres were quite ready.”
He added that in his attempt to fix the lack of grip, he may have caused bigger issues for his tyres.
“So I was trying to do faster out-laps in Q3 – they were my hottest out-laps, I would say. Maybe that was working against me a little bit.”
Despite his irritation, Bearman was quick to acknowledge the positives, citing that a start inside the top 10 gives him the chance to add to his fourth place in Mexico.
“To be where we are is a great result,” he expressed.
“As much as we had great performance at the start of quali, I’m still happy with P8.
“The important thing is to understand why it worked so well in Q1 and Q2 and what we missed in Q3.”
Bearman also praised the performance of his VF-25 throughout the weekend, emphasising how well-balanced his car felt through Saturday’s sessions.
“To have the performance we did today, the car was working so well in high speed,” he highlighted.
“I had an incredible amount of confidence with the car, and even in low speed, it was working very well. So it’s a great job.
“The car is feeling really good underneath me, and now I’m really looking forward to the race.”
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