F1 driver handed further FIA punishment as race ban threat grows
The FIA is F1's governing body
The FIA has added four penalty points to Oliver Bearman’s superlicence after the Haas driver was punished for a red-flag infringement at the British Grand Prix.
It means the rookie now sits just four penalty points away from triggering an automatic one-race ban.
Oliver Bearman four points away from one-race ban after further FIA punishment
Additional reporting by Thomas Maher
Bearman crashed at the entrance to the pit lane under red flag conditions during Saturday’s FP3 session at Silverstone.
The 20-year-old was hit with a 10-place grid penalty for the breach, dropping him from eighth to 18th on the starting grid for today’s race.
The FIA has announced that Bearman has also been handed four penalty points, putting him on eight for the current 12-month window.
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Drivers are given a one-race ban if they accumulate 12 points in the space of 12 months, with Bearman’s Haas predecessor Kevin Magnussen becoming the first to be banned under the system last year.
Bearman was the beneficiary on that occasion, making his Haas debut at the 2024 Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku as Magnussen served his punishment.
Bearman’s tally is currently not set to decrease until November 2, when the two penalty points he received for colliding with Franco Colapinto at last year’s Brazilian Grand Prix are wiped from his score.
The youngster also picked up two penalty points for overtaking Carlos Sainz, the Williams driver, under red flag conditions at this year’s Monaco Grand Prix. These will not be erased until May 23 next year.
The stewards’ verdict on Saturday at Silverstone read: “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.
“The session 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.
“We accordingly penalised him per the penalty guidelines to a drop of 10 grid places with 4 penalty points.”
More on Oliver Bearman and Haas from PlanetF1.com
Martin Brundle, the Sky F1 pundit, was among those left aghast by Bearman’s recklessness under a red flag, branding his mistake “mad.”
He said: “He’s shown good speed in his rookie season, but that was crazy.
“You’re going past a red flashing panel, accelerating like crazy to try pit in and the stewards report says he was even faster on that trial [at] pit in – because you’ve got to keep pounding along until you get to the speed limit – than he was on an earlier trial.
“So that’s why they’ve hit him so hard, because you don’t know if there’s going to be marshals, if there’s another incident, if there’s something coming around there, whatever.
“You don’t know what the red flag is for, so to accelerate like that? Mad.”
Speaking to media including PlanetF1.com after qualifying at Silverstone, Bearman admitted that he had “let my team down” after his mistake cost him eighth place on the grid.
He said: “Cold brakes and tyres. So a silly error, one that shouldn’t have happened.
“Just a misjudgement from my side really.”
Asked how it feels to be hit with such a severe penalty after an impressive result, he added: “Mixed. Mixed, for sure.
“On one hand, we brought an upgrade this weekend and clearly it’s showing potential because our qualifying pace has not been fantastic recently.
“And now to be in Q3 on merit is a good feeling. I only did one new set of tyres in Q2 as well, which normally only the top teams do, so we actually had a very, very strong qualifying and the car was feeling great, the best it’s ever felt for me.
“Then, of course, I’m really disappointed in myself because I’ve let my team down today.”
Put to him that he will be competing under the threat of a race ban for at least the next few months, he replied: “Yes, but let’s move on.”
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