Haas reveal critical moment that cost Ollie Bearman podium chance: 'It was definitely on the cards'

Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu insists a maiden podium for the team and rookie Ollie Bearman was "definitely on the cards" at the Mexico City Grand Prix, before events transpired against them.

The British driver ultimately finished fourth at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, having started ninth.

It is the new high point of his 23-round F1 career and equalled the American squad's best result, matching Romain Grosjean's performance at the Austrian Grand Prix in 2018.

The beginning of the Mexico City Grand Prix is always a difficult situation to navigate. The run from pole position to the first braking zone is 830m, and once there, the pack concertinas up through a tricky series of right-left-right right-angle corners.

This year, chaos ensued. Multiple cars ahead of Bearman took to the grass. By the time the 20-year-old had emerged through the melee, he was already up to sixth.

"He did very well getting through that mess," Komatsu told RacingNews365 during an exclusive interview. 

"It's always the case in Mexico. Turns 1, 2, and 3 are huge, nervy moments."

Taking advantage

The jostling for position ahead of Bearman continued for a number of laps. By the end of lap 6, the Haas driver was already a net third.

A fight between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen at the start of the lap had culminated in both going off track. 

George Russell was caught up in the confusion, too. Bearman capitalised. 

Whilst the Red Bull and the Mercedes lost ground, the Ferrari remained in front, but was handed a 10-second time penalty for leaving the circuit and gaining a lasting advantage.

As the 71-lap race continued to unfold, Bearman held his own. Hamilton served his punishment at the first round of pit stops, elevating his compatriot to his rightful position. Verstappen went long and eventually pitted, coming out further down the order.

When asked if he felt his driver had the speed in his VF-25 to hold quicker cars behind him, Komatsu admitted his surprise at what Bearman was able to do.

"Not that much pace," he replied. "I knew that our actual FP2 long run pace was good, but of course, FP2 long run is not long enough to know about the full race distance, right?

"I knew that our long run pace was probably the strongest of the season — I knew that much.

"But then, I'm not focused on racing McLaren and Mercedes, I'm focused on racing against Sauber, Racing Bulls, Williams, those guys, our direct competitors, so I wasn't even focused on that.

"But then, when we are in front of Max — yes, Max was on the medium tyre, but — we pulled away, it was amazing.

"And then the second stint, we had a Mercedes behind, [Kimi] Antonelli. But he really wasn't putting pressure on us at all, so that was great."

The crucial moment

Mercedes decided to invert its drivers, putting Russell directly behind the Haas in a bid to get through. That did not work, either.

With Antonelli coming under pressure from Oscar Piastri behind, both the Toto Wolff-led team and McLaren gambled, bringing them in.

Haas had just one lap to make the difficult choice between staying out on the conventional one-stop strategy or rolling the dice and diverting to a two-stopper to cover the threat further down the order.

The Kannapolis-based squad opted for the latter, pitting at the same time as Russell on lap 49.

With Verstappen coming through the group on a one-stop approach, it cost any realistic chance of a podium finish. It was the conservative choice, but the right one in the grand scheme of things.

Komatsu acknowledged a trip to the rostrum was "definitely on the cards" but explained that once Antonelli and Piastri pitted, there was little to no chance of keeping Verstappen behind by the chequered flag. 

"Because if nobody had pitted — of course, we knew Max was coming, but if nobody had pitted — about four cars in a DRS train, I don't think Max would have got through," he reflected.

"But as soon as the two cars pitted [Antonelli and Piastri], then there's only us, and then George, basically, and then Max was gonna come through."

"So then, as soon as I knew that George was coming in, we were only going to lose to Max — Max would have overtaken us anyway, probably.

"So that was, now I'd say 'a no brainer', but at that point, it's a pressured decision, but we've done it correctly, in the sense that we just focused on 'what's the right thing to do right now', not about the result, if it is P3 or P4.

"Because trying to hold onto P3, of course, is very tempting, but if we were focused too much on that one, I think we'd have risked losing everything.

"Look at how Max caught up to Charles [Leclerc], right? We were miles off from Charles; we don't quite have Ferrari's pace.

"So we'd have completely fallen off. We definitely would not have held on to P3, [and] P4 would have been a huge risk. So that was the right call."

'Mega team effort'

After that pivotal decision, the race calmed back down again for the next 20-or-so laps before a late virtual safety car came to the protection of Bearman from Piastri, who had worked his way past the Mercedes pair.

Looking back on the closing stages, Komatsu was keen to underline the "mega team effort" that was required to hold onto fourth.

"After the second stop, final stint, George was pushing really hard, but then we were fine," the 49-year-old said.

"And then looking after the tyres, we had it covered, and then Piastri was quicker than us. He had a better pace; especially the McLaren was so much better than us into Turn 1, 2, 3, but our Sector 3 was strong, so he [Bearman] was great.

"And then again, in the whole team effort, the second pit stop, that was the pressure, right, pitting the same lap as George and against Mercedes, which is a top team, and we did our season's fastest pit stop — 2.1 [seconds].

"I think officially it's 2.2 or something, but it's just a mega team effort."