Bearman blames “silly, dumb error” for costly F1 British GP grid penalty

Oliver Bearman was left fuming at himself for picking up a 10-place grid penalty and ruining his British Grand Prix qualifying, despite Haas bringing a strong Formula 1 car to Silverstone.

One of four British drivers on the grid, Bearman got through to Q3 and put his Haas eighth – only to drop 10 places following a red-flag infringement after Gabriel Bortoleto’s crash towards the end of Saturday’s third practice session.

Bearman lost control of his Haas and hit the wall on the entry into the pitlane, having approached at high speed, knocking off the majority of his car’s nose in the process and forcing other drivers to take evasive action.

It is the second such grid penalty Bearman has picked up in 2025, with another red-flag misdemeanour in Monaco also punished by the stewards. He was also handed four penalty points for the latest error, taking his total to eight, and was clearly ruing the incident despite a strong qualifying display.

“It’s not a relief,” he replied when asked if his ability to get through to the top 10 shootout had softened the blow of the penalty.

“We were doing a very slow lap under the red flag, and then going into the pit entry with very cold tyres and brakes I didn’t really account for that. So yeah just a silly, dumb error, because when I hit the brakes they were stone cold, and so were the tyres, and I lost it,” he later explained to Sky Sports. “So silly, and really kicking myself.

“I wish I could go back and change it, but we can’t, so let’s learn from it and hopefully we’ll have a good race.

“I’m still angry at myself and very sad, but I’m glad at least that we could show the good thing today was that we have a quick car in qualifying trim, which hasn’t been the case more recently. So I’m really proud of the team for bringing in a successful upgrade.

“If we have a car that’s P8 in qualifying, it means we have a very quick race car, because normally our quali car is not quite as fast as our race car. So hopefully that stays, and we can have a good one tomorrow.”

Bearman, 20, insisted the blame laid squarely at his door following the unusual incident, for which he remonstrated with himself over the radio – annoyed that he’d tried to push at the pit entry with cold brakes.

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

“I didn’t account for the cold brakes and tyres – so, yeah, silly error, one that shouldn’t happen at this level,” he added.

“Just a misjudgement from my side, really. It sucks quite honestly, it’s horrible, but I can only blame myself for that. It was my fault and a very silly error this morning.

“On the other hand I’m really glad that we had a good qualifying, and first of all to validate the team’s hard work, because we’ve had the upgrade this weekend and we were in Q3 on merit.

“So that’s great. Qualifying has been our weak point for the past couple of events, and now to be in Q3 in a track where there’s lots of high-speed [corners], which across the season has not been our strongest feature, is a great feeling. I know I’m going to start from last tomorrow, but I’ll see what I can do.”