Ollie Bearman has shared how his strong points finish at the Australian Grand Prix gave Haas a necessary “boost” to carry into the next round as they saw their “hard work” pay off from the get-go.
The Briton made up five places throughout the race to take P7 at the chequered flag, marking a distinct turnaround from the team’s result at Albert Park last season, when he and team mate Esteban Ocon were the last of the finishers.
At the time, Haas went on to take a massive step forward and claim a top-five result with the Frenchman at the following Chinese Grand Prix, so the early signs that they are already in the fight for ‘best of the rest’ have left Bearman optimistic about their potential.
“It’s been an incredibly busy start to the year for everyone, particularly for our team,” he said. “It’s not easy to get the car out running, from the shakedown to the first test to Bahrain, to get to Australia with not much time to spare – the team has been working incredibly hard.
“To validate all of that hard work with a great performance is really what everybody needed as a boost to start the year, even just heading into the garage and the office today, it’s made a difference and everybody is in high spirits.
“And of course it’s easier to do all those hard hours and all of that hard work when you have points to show for it afterwards, so I’m really happy and we’ve got to keep it up now.”
While they edged out their midfield rivals in Audi and Racing Bulls in the race, the same cannot be said for Qualifying – Bearman explained that they need to work on their one-lap pace after he was knocked out in P12, with Ocon just behind him in P13.
The gap to the frontrunners might be too large for Haas to repeat Ocon’s P5 finish in the upcoming Chinese Grand Prix, but a spot in the top 10 could be crucial in continuing their momentum and adding to the points tally.
Bearman said: “Qualifying was a bit disappointing – we didn’t quite maximise everything and there were a few teams that were simply quicker, that we probably didn’t expect in Qualifying, but the race was good.
“We pretty much achieved what we needed to, we beat our competition – we were obviously not in the same race at all as the top four teams, and they seem to be at this stage in a different league than the rest of us. I’m happy with the performance that we have done, and that gives us a really good feeling to start the year.”
