Oliver Bearman lamented the current phase experienced by Haas in the Formula 1 season and highlighted that they are fighting with their ‘hands tied behind their backs’ as the year unfolds.
The American team started the campaign with high performance, managing to score points in five of the first six weekends of the calendar. In fact, in China, the British driver crossed the finish line in a positive fifth place.
However, being the team with the smallest budget on the grid, their performance began to decline and they are now in eighth position in the championship with a nine-point lead over Audi. “It’s a difficult situation our team is going through. We have talked a lot about it, but the inconsistency among our parts has been quite high,” he admitted.
“I have experienced both sides of this situation, both the negative and the positive, but it’s a shame, because it means you are always trying to hit a moving target. From one day to the next, the car’s balance can change without us expecting it. In short, the battle we fight is not always fair; sometimes, we feel as if we are fighting with our hands practically tied behind our backs,” he continued.
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But even suffering with the overall performance, Ollie praised how he has been driving. “Of course, I feel that I am performing at a very high level; I clearly see an evolution in my performances compared to 12 months ago, and even compared to the start of the season. That’s all I can do,” he said.
“At the moment, we are not fighting for points. We are not competing for much beyond trying to get the most out of ourselves and learn as much as possible during this difficult period, hoping that soon we will have enough performance to put this into practice and score points. It has been a challenge for us. I am satisfied with my work, but the story is not necessarily the one that appears in the headlines,” he concluded.
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