‘We need to catch up’ – Why Bearman is ‘not surprised’ Haas have been overtaken by rivals

Ollie Bearman has conceded that Haas have been out-developed by their competitors so far in 2026, with the Briton admitting that he is consequently “not surprised” to see the squad being overtaken by the likes of Alpine and Racing Bulls.

The campaign started reasonably well for the American outfit, Bearman having scored points at the first two races in Australia and China while team mate Esteban Ocon added to the tally in Japan.

There appears to have been a more challenging run of late, however, with both drivers finishing outside of the top 10 at the last two rounds. Haas currently sit seventh in the Teams’ Championship, 23 points behind Racing Bulls in sixth.

Asked during Thursday’s media day at the British Grand Prix about when the team might be expecting further updates for the car – and how he sees the next few races panning out – Bearman responded: “Being brutally honest, we've just been out-developed by our competitors and we haven't brought as many upgrades and significant upgrades as they have.

“So I'm not surprised to be standing here being overtaken by Alpine, Racing Bulls and Audi. In Austria we were with Williams. It shows we need to continue working hard and we need to put a bit more performance on the car.

“This weekend we have a little step which should hopefully push us in the right direction, but we need to knuckle down and work hard because the others have brought a little bit more than us and we need to catch up.”

The event will mark Bearman’s second home race in Formula 1 and, despite the recent struggles on track, the 21-year-old is excited to take to the Silverstone circuit in front of his local fans.

“I'm very much looking forward to the racing here again,” he smiled. “It’s definitely one of the best tracks on the calendar – let's see how it is this year with these engines and power unit regulations.

“But as an event this is for me the highlight with my family coming, [and] the home crowd which will hopefully give me three tenths – that's apparently what Nigel [Mansell] used to say. I'm excited, and I always find a bit more energy for this one.

“It’s a busy one but it’s such a cool event and always special to race at home. In terms of our chances, it's going to be a tough weekend. I think we're expecting that. We came off the back of Spielberg where on my side I really felt I performed well, but we were the eighth-fastest car.

“If that's the case again, we're not going to score points this weekend, but you know what happened last year with the weather and Nico [Hulkenberg] scoring a podium – I think moments like that proved anything can happen and that we should always keep our head up and give it everything, because there can be chances and that's what Formula 1 is about.”