Ollie Bearman secured the final championship point with a tenth-place finish at the 2025 F1 Japanese Grand Prix, describing his race as “lonely”. The British rookie completed what he called his first mistake-free Formula 1 weekend, marking an important milestone in his development. Bearman maintained a consistent pace throughout that kept him isolated from battles with other drivers.
A lonely but productive F1 Japanese GP
Speaking after the race, Bearman reflected on the solitary nature of his Japanese GP experience. “Yeah, pretty boring. I was pretty lonely out there,” said the British driver. “Bit sneaky, but no, it was a fun race,” he shared.
“With the temperatures dropping like they did today, and the track kind of resetting overnight with the rain, the grip was incredibly high and the level of pushing was also incredibly high.”
The young driver explained why he found himself in no-man’s land during the race, saying, “The tyres were super robust today, and it was basically just a flat-out race.”
“I didn’t quite have enough pace to attack, and I wasn’t slow enough to be attacked either, so it was a bit lonely.”
Haas’ floor upgrades show promise
Bearman expressed satisfaction with the team’s recent floor upgrades, which were rapidly deployed following difficulties in Australia. “For me, it seems positive, so I’m happy with that,” he said. “The team have done a great job bringing it so quickly after the upset of Australia. I think we did a great reaction and for it to work as expected is a good feeling.”
He elaborated on the benefits of the new floor design. “For me, we just had a little bit less bouncing in those high-speed corners, which anyway I feel like I’m not super sensitive to, so with or without the floor, I don’t complain that much about bouncing,” he explained. “Yeah, I’m used to F2, which doesn’t have suspension essentially, so anything’s an upgrade.”
“The floor has definitely improved the bouncing, and it doesn’t really change the feeling for us, but it allows us to run the car a bit more aggressively and get a bit more performance out of it, which is good. And yeah, it seems like it’s working.”
A clean F1 Japanese GP for Bearman
Bearman took particular pride in completing his first error-free Formula 1 weekend, saying, “Every weekend I’ve done so far has had a mistake somewhere, maybe on China, but this one, completing the full weekend without any bad points, good qualifying, good race, I’m happy with this one, and it’s a good baseline to improve from.”
As the F1 calendar progresses, Bearman also expressed enthusiasm about competing at tracks he knows from his junior career. “I’m definitely excited to go to tracks that I know,” he said.
“At the end, it doesn’t change much by the time you get to qualifying, because even in here, you know, having three or four practises is enough to learn the track the most.”
Bearman emphasised that car comfort remains the key factor in his performance during the F1 Japanese GP. “It really all comes down to how comfortable I am in the car,” explained Bearman. “This weekend I felt really confident to push and lean on it, and if I have that feeling, I hope we can be that competitive in the future races too.”
