Ollie Bearman‘s 2025 F1 Monaco GP weekend has taken a sharp turn for the worse as the Haas rookie has been handed a 10-place grid penalty for a red flag violation during FP2 on Friday.
Bearman came under scrutiny after appearing to overtake Carlos Sainz under red flag conditions triggered by Oscar Piastri’s crash at the Swimming pool chicane.
The stewards made this decision after an investigation which included video footage, telemetry and a hearing with Bearman and a Haas representative. It was concluded that he breached the ISC, mandating drivers to reduce speed and not overtake during red flag periods.
Stewards’ verdict on Bearman after F1 Monaco GP FP2
The stewards’ verdict read,“Well prior to the overtake, the session had been red-flagged. The team informed the driver rather late, just before the overtake happened.
“However, it is clear from the video footage that there was a light panel directly in front of the driver, which showed the red flag, and the dashboard also indicated the red flag well before the overtake took place.
“The regulations require the drivers to ‘immediately’ reduce speed and proceed slowly back to their respective pits (Article 2.5.4.1 b). The same regulations caution drivers of the fact that in a red flag situation, ‘overtaking is forbidden’ and that drivers should ‘remember that race and service vehicles may be on the track.’
“The driver [Bearman] claimed that he saw the red flags but decided not to slow down abruptly because he felt that slowing down abruptly would have been more dangerous and that what he did was a safer way of handling the situation.
“We disagreed with his decision not to take steps to slow down sufficiently to avoid overtaking another car and instead proceeding slowly back to the pits, as required.
“The whole purpose of requiring drivers to slow down immediately is for safety – they will not know what is in front of them or the reason for the red flag being shown. This is particularly so in a track like Monaco.
“In the circumstances, there is no mitigating factor for the fact that he overtook a car under red flag, and we therefore imposed a penalty of a 10-grid place drop for the race and two penalty points.”
This means that regardless of where he qualifies on Saturday, Bearman will drop ten positions on the grid. It is a significant blow at a circuit where overtaking is notoriously difficult.
The penalty also adds to an increasingly eventful F1 Monaco GP Friday for the stewards, who earlier handed Lance Stroll a single-place penalty for his FP1 Incident with Charles Leclerc.
