Oliver Bearman crossed the finish line in seventh during the Australian Grand Prix, but that doesn’t mean he enjoyed driving this race. Although the Haas driver is satisfied with the result, he is critical of the new overtake button. According to Bearman, it actually makes racing more complicated. “It felt like I was driving a Formula 1 car and the rest were in Formula 2,” said the 20-year-old Briton.
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According to Oliver Bearman, racing feels like he’s playing a video game. Drivers have to use their battery at the right moments to have an advantage on the straight. “With the battery, I could overtake several drivers, making it seem like I was in a Formula 1 car and the rest in Formula 2. Only after that, you have to recharge it again, otherwise you’re hopeless on the next straight,” Bearman explains.
‘Ridiculous’
With his criticism, Bearman joins comments from the likes of Max Verstappen and Lando Norris. The reigning world champion called the new way of overtaking artificial. “Honestly, it’s ridiculous that such a button makes such a big difference and that you lose so much on the next straight afterwards,” says the Haas driver. “You have to think about many things at once and that makes racing complicated.”
The 20-year-old Briton also sees that the energy you recover and can eventually use is not equal. “What you gain on the straight with the boost is about a quarter of what you lose on the next straight. Unless you complete the overtake at the start of the straight. Then you can recharge the battery at the end. But that’s not racing, that’s Formula E,” Bearman emphasizes.
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‘Flew past everyone’
During the race, Bearman fought for about twenty to thirty laps with rookie Arvid Lindblad. The two swapped positions several times, but Bearman didn’t really enjoy the fight. “In the end, I finished seventh and I’m happy with that, but the car wasn’t the most fun to drive. You gain almost nothing with the overtake mode, about one tenth. That’s much less than what you lose in dirty air. That makes it frustrating.” Bearman did enjoy the start. “I don’t know exactly what happened, but I thought: ‘Let me use the boost button and see what happens.’ I flew past everyone on the straight. That was quite funny,” Bearman says.
DRS worked better for overtaking, according to the Haas driver. “Last year you could at least gain something with DRS. In Melbourne, the difference then was about six tenths and the overtaking difference nine tenths. If you were slightly faster, you had a chance to overtake someone after ten or fifteen laps. Now that difference is only one tenth,” Bearman notes.
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Read everything about the Chinese GP here
