Ollie Bearman and Pierre Gasly have reflected on their collision in the United States Grand Prix, with the former stating “I don’t regret going for the move” despite being handed a penalty.
The pair were on the fringes of the top 10 in the early stages of Sunday’s race at the Circuit of The Americas, with Bearman having closed up to the Alpine driver as a Virtual Safety Car ended.
Bearman, who had already made up two places on the opening lap, lunged to the inside of Gasly through the right of Turn 13 with the pair making what looked like innocuous contact.
Bearman moved ahead but had suffered extensive damage in the collision, as well as picking up a 10-second penalty for the incident, before the Haas driver eventually retired due to the damage.
“I went up his inside, he saw me because he left space but for me it didn’t really feel like enough. It was a bit of space but only half a car and by the time I was committed, I wasn’t disappearing,” said Bearman.
“So we made a bit of contact, I picked up a huge amount of damage on my car. I probably damaged Pierre’s car as well. It was a shame because I felt like I was massively penalised for it and it actually ruined my race to have that amount of damage.
“I was losing a second a lap due to downforce and on top of that, I picked up a penalty. In my view it was a racing incident.”
Bearman admitted that he needed to be aggressive as Haas struggle to match the performance of midfield teams such as Alpine and Racing Bulls when fighting for minor points positions.
“To be honest, I don’t regret going for the move because at this stage if we don’t do something special and get a bit lucky, be a aggressive and go for it, then we’re not going to score points because we’re not fast enough to do that on merit,” added Bearman.
Gasly eventually finished P10, but like Bearman had also suffered damage in the collision which he believes cost him any chance of battling Liam Lawson’s Racing Bulls for P9.
“I’m pleased because after the contact with Ollie, we had quite a big damage on the floor,” he said.
“It was a small touch honestly and I didn’t expect the floor to be that damaged following it. But considering the pace after that and the fact we managed to hold onto P10, it’s positive.”
He added: “I think [the overtake] was a little optimistic, not crazy, but a little optimistic.
“Unfortunately there was this touch which cost us and cost probably 5-10 seconds of race time following it. It was not ideal, but at the same time, he tried it. It just wasn’t the cleanest move.”
