Oliver Bearman’s Australian Grand Prix off to a difficult start

After three impressive races during the 2024 in a reserve rule for both Ferrari and Haas, Oliver Bearman earned a full-time seat at Haas for the 2025 Formula 1 season.

But that rookie campaign for Bearman has gotten off to a very difficult start.

Bearman endured a hard shunt during Friday’s first practice session, and the damage to his VF-25 prevented him from running during FP2. So it was probably no surprise that when the green light came out to open FP3 Bearman was the first driver to take to the track, hoping to make up for the lost time ahead of qualifying.

Minutes later Bearman was back in the gravel, and out of the session.

Here was Bearman’s crash from FP1 on Friday:

“I’m sad to have missed all that running today,” said Bearman in the team’s post-practice report on Friday. “The team did a great job to try and get the car back out, but we just ran out of time. I made a small mistake in turn 10 which put me a bit wide, and out there it’s very bumpy and unfortunately I lost it.

“I struggled a little bit, but I felt confident, maybe too much – but I felt at home and was building up nicely. FP3 is a long session and then into qualifying, the race will be a bit of a roll of the dice currently.”

Here is a look at Bearman’s spin at Turn 11 during FP3, which cost him that “long session:”

This sets up a difficult qualifying session for Bearman later today in Melbourne, as he’ll have to run in Q1 with only a handful of laps around Albert Park under his belt this week. Then with rain potentially in the forecast for Sunday, the weekend might get even tougher for one of F1’s rookies.