Haas driver Oliver Bearman’s troubles at the Australian Grand Prix continued on Saturday as the British teen failed to post a lap in qualifying after triggering a second red flag in two days of practice.
Starting an Formula 1 season for the first time, the 19-year-old has had precious little run-time at Albert Park, having crashed early in first practice on Friday and missing the second session as the team scrambled to make repairs.
He spun off the track during his first flying lap in the final practice session on Saturday and ended up beached in the gravel, with a crane needing to lift his car out.
Then, shortly after rolling out for qualifying, he was on the team radio reporting a gearbox problem and soon back in the garage unable to post a lap.
“It’s disappointing to not get a lap on the board but it’s been a messy weekend so far,” Bearman said. “As a team we’ve struggled a little bit and of course I haven’t run all weekend, and that’s made it tough for the team to understand as they’ve been only running one car, so I can only apologise to the team.”
Teammate Esteban Ocon managed to post a lap but it was the slowest among the five eliminated from the first session of qualifying. He will start 19th.
Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu was surprised by the cars’ lack of pace, particularly in high-speed corners.
“We didn’t see that coming from Bahrain testing, but this is the reality currently and we need to find a solution as quickly as possible,” he said.
“It’s of course going to be helpful if it’s raining because if it’s dry, we simply don’t have pace.”
Source: espn.com