Bearman calls 10-second penalty 'crazy' after Gasly clash ends his US Grand Prix

Oliver Bearman branded his 10-second penalty for colliding with Pierre Gasly at the United States Grand Prix in Austin “crazy”, insisting the incident was a racing accident that was harshly judged by FIA stewards.

The Haas driver had climbed two positions on the opening lap before attempting a move on Gasly’s Alpine down the inside of Turn 13 on lap two. As the gap closed, Bearman rode two wheels onto the yellow kerb in an effort to avoid contact, but his front-left wheel still brushed the Alpine’s sidepod — light contact that nonetheless triggered significant damage to both cars and a penalty from the stewards.

“I was pretty shocked to be honest,” Bearman said. “If anything, it was a racing incident. I felt a bit hard done by for it to be a 10-second penalty, especially given some of the incidents that have happened this year that have gone either unpenalised or with a five-second penalty. Ten seconds for that type of incident seems very excessive in my opinion.”

The Briton argued he had earned the right to racing room. “I felt like I had enough of my car alongside to justify a bit of space, and didn’t really get that space. I was given maybe half a car width. I was climbing up onto the kerb trying to avoid contact, but I simply couldn’t. I couldn’t disappear once I decided to go for the move. I didn’t lock up, I didn’t lose any control — it was just simply I couldn’t disappear at that stage. Ten seconds is crazy, given all of those facts.”

The penalty itself proved secondary to the physical damage. Bearman described how a loosened floorboard gradually destroyed his car’s performance over the following laps. “It was a very small touch, but it loosened basically the floorboard and that slowly vibrated its way off over the next few laps,” he said. “I had maybe five laps where I was actually feeling very good and then slowly, step by step, the car was getting worse and then it was game over.”

By lap 11, the deterioration had become catastrophic. Bearman reported losing eight tenths of a second to his own previous sector-one time from one lap to the next, at which point he waved team-mate Esteban Ocon through rather than hold him up.

“I just said, ‘I’m not in this race anymore,’” Bearman explained. “We’re racing as a team to try to beat Audi, so I let him go at the earliest opportunity.”