The first Grand Prix of the 2025 Formula One season will be in Melbourne, with Australian Grand Prix, which is just hours away.
However, we should not denounce rookie Oliver Baerman, who wanted to “go ahead” to China's Grand Prix, the second race of the season.
Bearman's first season as a full-time driver on the Formula 1 grid was off to a difficult start, suffering from two incidents and a gearbox failure. Hard shunt during the first practice session on Friday not only ended his FP1, but also sacrificed him the entire second practice session as the team worked to repair the damage on his VF-25. Naturally, Haas' driver was first out on the track to make up for the lost time in his third practice session on Saturday, but quickly found gravel and brought another practice session earlier for him.
Then the issue with his VF-25 gearbox came as he saw him retire before setting the time in the first quarter, so he came to an early finish for him.
In his team's post-qualification report, Bareman described his weekend as “troubling.”
“It's a shame we can't get raps on the board, but it's been a troublesome weekend so far,” Bareman said. “I think tomorrow will be interesting and then we can move on. We've been struggling a bit as a team, but of course I haven't been running all weekend. That's because the team is running only one car, it's hard for the team to understand, so we can only apologise to the team.”
On the other side of the garage, things weren't that good. Esteban Ocon was able to complete his run in qualifying, but he didn't advance from the first quarter and will start at P19 with Bearman in the back row on Sunday.
The veteran driver admitted he was surprised that Haas was in the pecking order to start the year.
“It was a difficult thing. Honestly, it's a bit surprising compared to where we saw on the test. Historically, it was a difficult track for the team, but we didn't think it had been like this before,” Ocon said. “We took encouraging steps in each session, but obviously we need more. Tomorrow we will go again and try to get the most out of the opportunity with rain forecasts.”
As pointed out, there is rain on Sunday's forecast. This gives Haas the opportunity to save something from the weekend. Ocon provided one of the more memorable results in the rain last season, finishing second in the rainy Sao Paulo Grampurpuri.
Still, Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu pointed out that the rain might be “helpful” but if the condition remains dry, there is no pace now.
“One more difficult day on yesterday's performance issues,” Komatsu explained. “We worked to improve the car as much as possible, but in the end it wasn’t enough.
We lack a lot in the highway corner and we didn't know that it would come from the Bahrain test, but this is real and we need to find a solution as soon as possible.
“Of course, it would be useful if it's raining, because if it's dry, we simply don't have a pace,” added Haas boss. “Understanding this issue may help with wet lace, but I'll put it all in tomorrow. I won't give up.”
