Oliver Bearman has expressed his anguish over Haas’ struggles in Formula 1 this season, believing it has not always been a “fair fight”.
The Banbury-based team had enjoyed a pretty stellar start to F1’s latest era, with Bearman even scoring a career-best P5 at China, only two rounds into 2026.
That said, reality has caught up quickly with Haas, who now find themselves struggling to consolidate themselves in the lower half of the midfield battle.
Despite an initially strong concept on the VF-26, Haas does not have the budget, even with the cost cap in place, to consistently bolt on upgrades and rectifications to its car
To make matters worse, the upgrades the team have brought to its car this season have not been effective, with both Bearman and team-mate Esteban Ocon finding it hard to correlate the results on track.
Looking back at the first half of the season, Bearman is clearly frustrated, believing Haas has been “fighting with our hands almost tied behind our backs.”
“It’s a tough situation that is happening at our team,” he said.
“We’ve been speaking about it a lot, but the inconsistency between our parts has been quite high.
“I’ve been on the bad side of that and I’ve also been on the good side of that, but it’s a shame because it means that you’re always chasing a moving target.
“Overnight, we can have changes to our car balance without expecting that. All of that is to say that it’s not always a fair fight, the one that we are having, and sometimes we feel like we’re fighting with our hands almost tied behind our backs.”
Haas’ 2026 results have betrayed Oliver Bearman’s F1 progress
The 21-year-old came into Haas off the back of a stellar bevvy of cameos back in 2024, for both Ferrari (as its reserve driver) and Haas. Last season, Bearman impressed in his rookie season, further consolidating his credentials for a future Ferrari seat.
However, with Lewis Hamilton finding his mojo back under the 2026 rule-set and Charles Leclerc signed up for the long-term future, it would appear that Bearman needs to find himself a front-running seat elsewhere.
But strapped into the cockpit of the VF-26, Bearman isn’t able to make much of an impression, languishing in the bottom half of the timing sheets across race weekends.
Bearman believes that despite Haas’ struggles, the stopwatch hasn’t been entirely true about his own progress as a racing driver over the past 18 months.
“Of course, I feel like I’m performing at a really high level, and I really see a step in my performances from 12 months ago, even from the start of the season. That’s all I can do,” Bearman explained.
“At this stage, we’re not in the fight for points. We’re not in the fight to do a whole lot other than try to get the most out of ourselves and learn as much as possible in this difficult period, hoping that soon we’re going to have the performance to put that to work and score points.
“It’s been a challenge for us. I’m happy with what I’m doing, but the story is not necessarily what you see in the headline.”
Bearman would be hoping for a better turnaround with Haas in the second-half of the season that kicks off with the Dutch GP, in two weeks’ time.
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