Ollie Bearman reflects on 'clumsy mistakes' from Melbourne as he aims to bounce back in China

Ollie Bearman is hopeful of a smoother weekend at the Chinese Grand Prix after ‘clumsy mistakes’ in Australia put him on the back foot.

Heading into last week’s season-opening Australian Grand Prix, Bearman had completed only 14-and-a-half laps of the Albert Park circuit, with crashes in Free Practice 1 (FP1) and FP3 severely limiting his preparation time.

With China hosting the first Sprint weekend of 2025, this weekend will feature only a single hour of practice before Sprint Qualifying takes place on Friday afternoon.

Reflecting on his full-time Haas debut, Bearman conceded: “It was a difficult weekend for sure. I didn’t make my life easy with the mistakes, the clumsy mistakes I made over the weekend. But I’m glad that we finished the race – maybe not as competitive as we would have liked, but lots of data gathered and collected.”

Haas F1 Team's British driver Oliver Bearman crashes during the first practice session of the — FP1 in Australia ended with a bang for Bearman as he crashed out of proceedings

He added: “It’s quite easy to move on. They were small mistakes with big consequences, which is just a feature of that track – it’s a bit of a sketchy one on the calendar.

“I should have approached the sessions differently for a track like that, where there’s no margin for error.”

Through his struggles, Bearman finished 14th and was one of only two rookies to reach the chequered flag – Kimi Antonelli being the other in fourth for Mercedes.

This, however, placed him as the final classified finisher, with team mate Esteban Ocon equally unable to take advantage of a chaotic race to score points in the same way that former Haas driver Nico Hulkenberg was able to for Kick Sauber.

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - MARCH 16: Oliver Bearman of Great Britain driving the (87) Haas F1 VF-25 — Bearman left Australia on a high after a difficult weekend

Asked about the lack of pace in Australia, Bearman said: “I think race one was a bit of a surprise for all of us within the team, about how uncompetitive we were.

“We have a few pointers now as to why that was, particularly in the race. We were a bit out of the window of performance, so we have a few ideas now heading into Shanghai.

“Unfortunately, not enough free practice sessions – not the best time for us to have a Sprint weekend, but we’ll see what we can do. I’m sure it will be a much better one.”