Haas failed to score a point at the Italian Grand Prix, with Ollie Bearman their lead driver in 12th while Esteban Ocon finished where he started in 15th. That leaves the American team losing more ground in the championship, but there were some positives to take home from Monza.The team opted to split strategies, starting Ocon on the hard tyre and Bearman on the medium. It meant the youngster was on the same strategy as many around him, and thus had to make up the places on the track rather than in the pits.
That was exactly what he tried to do, but he came a cropper when battling Carlos Sainz late on. As the Williams man steamed past down the straight and seemed far enough ahead to have the corner, Bearman tried to stick with him on the inside.
The result was a collision that tagged both drivers into a spin, leaving both with damage to boot. Bearman’s day was only made worse when the stewards deemed him responsible for the contact and handed him a 10-second time penalty.
In the end he came home 12th, one place below where he started.
“It’s really sad, honestly, as the car felt great today. I had to really fight as we were slow in the straights, but without the incident with Carlos Sainz, I think we could’ve been fighting for points – it’s just a big shame,” he said after the race.
Ocon also picked up an in-race penalty on a tricky day for the team, five seconds for the Frenchman for forcing Lance Stroll wide in the Aston Martin when they were battling for position early on. That was served in his very late pit stop, Ocon trying to go as deep as possible into the race in case of a Safety Car.
He pitted on the penultimate lap for soft tyres, and that, combined with the penalty, dropped him from ninth to 15th, a far cry from the previous race where the American outfit picked up double points.
“We tried as a team to try and stay out and do something different. The tyres were getting better every lap, so there was no point in boxing and losing it all, so we stayed out long,” Ocon explained.
“Unfortunately, we didn’t have the best Qualifying yesterday and that put us further back than we should be. There’s been some good learning from this weekend, and we’ll come back stronger.”
Haas remain ninth in the Teams’ Standings, now 11 points behind Kick Sauber who managed to score in Italy courtesy of Gabriel Bortoleto’s P8.
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