Oliver Bearman was “s***ing myself” in Max Verstappen battle
Oliver Bearman reacts to his battle with Max Verstappen on his way to a superb fourth place.
Oliver Bearman has admitted he was “sh***ing myself” in his wheel-to-wheel battle with Max Verstappen during the Mexico City Grand Prix.
The 20-year-old Briton took advantage of chaos in front of him and drove an outstanding race to score his best result in F1 with fourth place in Sunday’s race, equalling Haas’ highest finish.
Bearman capitalised on Lewis Hamilton and Verstappen’s battle to get ahead of the four-time world champion with an opportunistic pass, and moved up to third thanks to Hamilton’s 10-second time penalty.
He ultimately could not keep Verstappen behind but nevertheless secured an amazing result for himself and Haas in P4.
"I had a good start. I slotted myself between the two Mercs, I think, and then actually, in those laps, I had good pace. You know, I was able to stay in DRS,” Bearman said.
"George lost DRS to the car ahead. And then Hamilton and Max had a bit of a coming together, and I benefited from that too. Honestly, I was sh***ing myself going side by side with Max, but it's really cool to go wheel to wheel with these people that I've been watching since I started watching F1.
"And I had him in my mirrors for a long time, so it was probably the most pressure I've ever had in a race scenario.”
Bearman added: “It’s cool and I didn't expect to be fighting against these top cars this year or this stage of my career. But it gives me a great feeling for the future, and hopefully that can be the normal thing instead of a one-off.”
Was a podium ever truly on the cards?
Bearman held third place throughout the opening stint, but gave up track position to switch onto a two-stop strategy.
While he was targeting what would have been a stunning maiden grand prix podium, Bearman acknowledged it was the right call to stop for fresh tyres instead of trying to make it to the end and potentially lose more places.
"At points on that medium, I was, from what we understood, I was bringing that tyre to the end until I got called to box,” he explained.
“I need to look back at exactly what happened, but I think in our position, it would have been a bit risky trying to stay out and go for the podium and potentially finish sixth or seventh.
"I think we did the right choice by consolidating, even if it maybe stopped us from having the chance of a podium. But, we finished fourth still. It's not bad."
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