British rookie Ollie Bearman has been handed a 10-place grid penalty for Sunday’s British Grand Prix following a bizarre crash under red flag conditions at the end of Saturday’s final practice session.
The penalty compounded an already eventful FP3 for the Haas driver at his first home Grand Prix as a full-time F1 competitor, and comes with four penalty points added to his FIA Super Licence, bringing his total to eight.
The drama unfolded in the final minutes of FP3 when Bearman – who had already triggered an earlier red flag due to bodywork detaching from his VF-25 – lost control of his car as he entered the pit lane while the track was under red flag conditions following Gabriel Bortoleto’s off at Maggotts-Becketts.
In a moment that stunned the pit wall, Bearman approached the pit entry at full racing speed, braked and crashed into the barriers, shedding his front wing.
While the incident initially appeared to be a misjudged maneuver, the stewards launched an immediate investigation due to the crash occurring under red flag conditions – a serious breach of Formula 1 regulations.
Stewards’ Statement in Full
Following a review of telemetry, onboard footage, and Bearman’s testimony, the FIA stewards released the following statement outlining the reasons for the penalty:
“Car 87 had slowed down for the red flag and as he was approaching Turn 15 accelerated significantly to race pace and entered the pit entry road at 260kph. He lost control of the car in the pit entry road and crashed into the barriers.
“Art. 37.6 (a) of the Formula One Sporting Regulations and Art. 2.5.4.1(b) of Appendix H of the International Sporting Code require that when a red flag is shown ‘all cars must immediately reduce speed and proceed slowly back to the pit lane’.
“It is beyond doubt that the driver of Car 87 did not proceed slowly back to the pit lane when he accelerated to simulate entering into the pit entry road under race conditions.
“In fact, we looked at a previous in-lap under normal racing conditions and found that he was faster in this lap, under a red flag.
“To make matters worse, he lost control of the car and crashed into the barriers while at speed. The driver informed us that he misjudged the fact that his brakes were not warm because the lap was done slowly, due to the red flag.
“While this may have been a factor contributing to the crash, we did not consider it to be a mitigating factor.”
With the grid penalty applied, Bearman will start well down the order for Sunday’s Grand Prix. He had originally qualified inside the top ten but will now have to fight his way forward from the midfield, if not further back – a tough challenge in front of his home fans.
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