Oliver Bearman gets 10-place grid drop for ignoring red flags at F1 British GP

Oliver Bearman was hit with a 10-place grid penalty for ignoring red flags in the Formula 1 British Grand Prix’s third free practice session, which coincided with his pitlane crash.

Bearman lost control of his Haas and hit the wall on the entry into the pitlane in FP3, while pitting for a red flag produced by Gabriel Bortoleto’s accident as he suffered a snap through the Maggotts and Becketts corners and ended up in the gravel with broken suspension.

When Bearman hit the wall while returning to the pits, he knocked off the majority of his car’s nose and forced other drivers to take evasive action.

After he remonstrated with himself over the radio – annoyed that he’d tried to push the pit entry with cold brakes – the stewards investigated the incident.

In its stewards’ report, the FIA stated that Bearman had not followed articles in both F1’s sporting regulations and the International Sporting Code, which require a driver to drive slowly during red flag periods.  

It noted that Bearman entered the pitlane slip-road at 260km/h (160mph), a speed that had actually been faster than his previous in-lap during normal conditions. 

Thus, Bearman loses 10 places from wherever he qualifies for the British Grand Prix, and also receives four penalty points to take his total up to eight. 

Oliver Bearman, Haas F1 Team

Photo by: Simon Galloway / LAT Images via Getty Images

“The Stewards heard from the driver of Car 87 (Oliver Bearman), the team representative and reviewed positioning/marshalling system data, video, timing, telemetry, team radio and in-car video evidence,” read the stewards’ report. 

“The race was red flagged at 12.33:57. 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.” 

Bearman accrued his previous four penalty points for a similar breach of red flag conditions in Monaco, where the Briton overtook Carlos Sainz under red flags at the Rascasse during FP2. 

The FP3 session at Silverstone had previously been red-flagged by a piece of debris from Bearman’s car. A piece of the British rookie’s outer floor fence broke free of his VF-25 chassis, and came to rest in the middle of the track.