Ollie Bearman believes that Haas’ Canada updates are something of a double-edged sword, with more potential performance but at the cost of making the VF-26 “really challenging” to drive.
The Briton was only able to qualify 16th for the Canadian Grand Prix, one position ahead of team-mate Esteban Ocon – who dropped out in Q1. Earlier in the day, Bearman’s car was pulled out of parc ferme ahead of the sprint race to make set-up changes, necessitating a pitlane start.
Haas had introduced new sidepods and a new floor for Canada, which it hoped would increase the stability of the flow underneath the car and allow it to generate more downforce.
However, the team has struggled to dial in the new package, and Bearman suggested that qualifying was the first time in the weekend that he felt comfortable pushing the car.
“We’ve been chasing our tail all weekend really, it’s been really challenging,” he mused.
“We haven’t been able to find a solution that’s worked. To be honest, in the qualifying we were in a much better window and I was much happier with the car. But, you know, it’s been the first time that I actually pushed a braking zone or went to the limit in a traction zone all weekend.
“I could actually finally lean on the car and now we’re uncovering new problems. For example, I was having so many issues with front locking as I started to push. And that’s stuff that I’m sure that the others, they found that out in FP1. But in FP1 we were so far out that we were not able to push the car at all.”
Oliver Bearman, Haas F1 Team
Photo by: Guido De Bortoli / LAT Images via Getty Images
Bearman confirmed the decision to give up his sprint race grid position was to “put the car in a better window”, based on the team’s findings from Friday’s sprint qualifying session.
He added that the bumpiness of the Montreal circuit was not playing particularly nicely with his car, and laid out the difficulties the team has faced in trying different suspension settings.
“The performance is there but it’s just the characteristics of the car have become really challenging,” Bearman explained.
“And the way that we tried to run the car, especially this morning, was so tough. It’s probably best for ultimate lap time but there’s so many bumps and curbs around here.
“I was literally fighting to even see the corners with the amount of bumps that I was feeling. So it’s been really tough. When we try and run the car in a way that’s good for drivability, then the entries become really challenging.
“And when we stiffen it up to make it better, it’s then impossible to find confidence. So we’re kind of balancing that knife edge.”
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