Bearman admits Haas has slipped to 10th in F1 as rivals' upgrades leave team behind

Oliver Bearman has openly acknowledged that Haas has become the 10th-best team in Formula 1, admitting rivals have “totally left us behind” following a run of five consecutive scoreless grands prix that has exposed the American outfit’s lack of development.

The 21-year-old’s blunt assessment came after the Hungarian Grand Prix in Budapest, where Aston Martin’s substantial chassis upgrade package allowed both Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll to outpace the Haas cars. Bearman was eliminated in Q1, a stark contrast to the team’s strong early-season form that saw it score points in five of the opening six rounds of the 2026 campaign.

“We had a really, really good first few races where the car was quick, performing well, and we were really happy,” Bearman said. “But then, step by step, others caught up, others overtook, and now they’ve left us totally behind.”

Haas’s last significant upgrade package arrived at the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal in May, and the team is now clinging onto seventh place in the Constructors’ Championship. Bearman drew a sharp contrast with the team’s 2025 season, when Haas unusually improved its relative performance as the year progressed, finishing eighth overall.

“I remember overtaking both [Racing Bulls] in the race in Australia and driving away, and we wouldn’t dream of doing that these days,” he said. “2026 is more of what we’ve seen from Haas in the past — starting incredibly strong with a really quick car as a base, but not being able to improve like the others have.”

The root cause is familiar: Haas operates on the smallest budget on the grid, a constraint that has shadowed the team since its 2016 debut. While that disadvantage mattered less at the tail end of the previous regulation cycle — when development activity across the field slowed — the 2026 rules have triggered an intense, continuous development race that rewards teams with the resources to keep upgrading.

“Quite frankly, we’ve been overtaken right now. We are the 10th best team. It really hurts, myself and all the others,” Bearman said. “We were working really hard to make that not be the case, but that’s the reality of where we are right now.”

Aston Martin’s arrival at the front of the midfield is particularly significant given the Silverstone-based squad will also benefit from an updated Honda power unit at this weekend’s Dutch Grand Prix in Zandvoort — a development that leaves Bearman with little optimism about Haas recovering ground in the near term.