Haas’ Ollie Bearman qualified 15th for the sixth race of 2025 in Jeddah. However, the rookie remains confident in his race pace, looking to capitalise on the chaos of the Saudi Arabian GP.
Bearman’s pace through the opening stages of qualifying showed promise, but things didn’t quite come together in Q2. The Brit was candid about the challenges and emphasised the bigger picture for the team, maximising race day potential, especially in a venue known for safety cars and its unpredictable nature.
Bearman had a solid Q1, but Q2 “didn’t click”
Haas looked strong early on, comfortably advancing through Q1 after running an extra set of soft tyres. This additional grip gave him an upper hand against others, slotting himself in the top ten early in the session. The rookie cited this as the reason Haas were ahead of their main rivals in the midfield.
“Yeah, honestly, yes. Of course, we did another set in Q1, so it makes sense that we are a bit higher up than some of the others.”
However, in Q2, the momentum stopped. Bearman was knocked out of qualifying with a fastest lap time of 1:28.648. Around a tenth of a second slower than his fastest time in Q1. With the Haas driver addmitting that his final flying lap was unideal. Stating that he struggled with the fresh tyres put on his Haas.
“I felt like I didn’t get everything out of my final lap in Q2.”
“Just really struggled to get the correct feeling on a new tyre. The used tyre feels really good, but of course, you have a bit less grip, and on the new tyre, the feeling was quite inconsistent.”
Image Credit: MoneyGram Haas F1 Media Centre
Despite qualifying coming to an end, the youngster believes the team will need to look at what went wrong during qualifying. Ensuring they don’t make the same mistakes as the season progresses.
“We just need to look at our outlaps and look at our tyre temperatures and everything. And see if we could have extracted a bit more from a new tyre.”
Familiar track for Bearman
Ollie Bearman has had the upper hand on the other rookies on the grid this weekend. As all of them have only ever partaken in the Saudi Arabian GP in F2 machinery. Whilst the Haas rookie has competed in both F2 and F1 cars, as Jeddah was the track where he made his F1 debut last season with Ferrari. However, Bearman suggested that his previous knowledge of the track helped, but only to a point.
“Definitely beneficial to have had that experience, but at the end the limitations I’m suffering are quite different than last year’s car.”
His practice run was especially tricky, with the car’s setup far from where it needed to be. Stepping into a Formula 1 car always has its challenges, and Bearman made it clear that while the experience is invaluable, he still has a lot to learn.
“Straight away after FP1 you’re kind of working on fixing new issues, of which we had a lot yesterday. So, I was glad to have had the experience last year, but yesterday was extremely difficult.”
“The car was quite poor compared to how it performed today, which makes my life quite difficult to adapt to that.”
Haas still struggling despite upgrades
Haas’ challenges with high-speed performance have persisted throughout the early stages of 2025. Jeddah’s layout only magnified that weakness this weekend. Sector 1, featuring rapid changes of direction and a need for confidence in the car, proved to be the most difficult portion of the lap for Bearman and his teammate Esteban Ocon.
“We’re struggling a little bit in high speed, that’s clear. And if you look at the sectors, sector 1 we are losing a lot, 2 and 3, we are quite okay.”
Despite the team’s struggles in the high-speed corners, there has been progress in other areas. Particularly in straight-line speed, an area where Haas previously lagged.
“Now we’ve kind of aligned our top speed to the other guys, which seemed to be a weakness earlier in the season.”
Image Credit: MoneyGram Haas F1 Media Centre
That improvement could pay off on race day, particularly with long DRS zones offering overtaking opportunities.
“In the race you’re not on the limit in high speed, so therefore you kind of lose this gap in performance. But it seems at the moment that in high speed we are missing a little bit.”
If Haas and Bearman can unlock greater stability and grip in the fast corners, they will likely become a threat in the mid field.
Chaos could be an opportunity for Haas
Jeddah has a reputation amongst drivers of being one of the most dramatic tracks on the calendar. In previous years at the Saudi Arabian GP, there have been several red flags and virtual and full safety cars. Ahead of the race, Bearman warned caution, acknowledging that there was every chance the race could provide the best opportunity to score good points.
“There’s a lot of possibilities. I think the priority will be to have a clean race and just stay in the race.”
“There’s a high chance of cars going out, and I want to be there to benefit from that. So, we’ll try and have a clean one and have a good race pace tomorrow.”
