Oliver Bearman questions 'crazy' stewards decision after launching F1 attack

Oliver Bearman has branded the stewards' decision to hand him a 10-second penalty in the United States Grand Prix as "crazy" and "very excessive."

After the early virtual safety car restart, Bearman got a run on Alpine's Pierre Gasly into the Turn 12 braking zone, and was able to position himself for a move up the inside of the following right-hander of Turn 13.

Mounting the kerb, he barged past the French driver, but the stewards immediately placed him under investigation for causing a collision.

Ultimately, Bearman was handed a 10-second penalty for the incident, which involved his front-left tyre clipping the right-hand side of Gasly's car as he made the move stick. 

In the end, Bearman was forced to retire with "catastrophic" damage to his Haas machine from the incident, whilst Gasly went on to score one point for a P10 finish. 

However, reflecting, Bearman was critical of the stewards' decision to penalise him, given other examples this season, and what he believed to be mitigating factors.

"I was pretty shocked, to be honest. If anything, it was a racing incident. I felt a bit hard done by for it to be a 10-second penalty as well, especially given some of the incidents that have happened this year that have gone either unpenalized or were a five-second penalty," Bearman told media, including RacingNews365.

"10 seconds for that type of incident seems very excessive, in my opinion, given what happened. I had a great start. I had a great first lap. I also had a really good VSC restart to give myself the opportunity to attack on Pierre. 

"I went up the inside into Turn 13. I felt like I had enough of my car alongside to justify it and feel like I earned a bit of space, and didn't really get that space. I was climbing up onto the kerb trying to avoid contact, but I simply couldn't. 

"I couldn't disappear once I decided to go for the move. I didn't lock up. I didn't lose any control. It was just that I couldn't disappear at that stage. And 10 seconds is crazy given all of those facts. 

"So to be honest, the more penalising thing was that I picked up a bit of damage. It was a very small touch, but it loosened basically the floorboard, and that slowly vibrated its way off over the next few laps, and the car was just deteriorating. 

"I had maybe five laps where I was actually feeling very good, and everything was fine. And then slowly, step by step, the car was getting worse, and it was game over. 

"It was getting dangerous. I mean, the car was very unpredictable, and on top of that, mileage on the engine and all of the parts are important.

"It was very clear that suddenly I went from having a bit of damage on the car to having a catastrophic amount of damage on the car, and I just said: 'I'm not in this race anymore. I'm going to let Esteban go."

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Bearman lets Ocon past

Adding to the decision to wave Ocon past before an instruction from the pit-wall, Bearman declared that holding his outgoing team-mate up is "not what I'm racing for."

"I just didn't want to hold him up because that's not what I'm racing for," he said.

"We're racing as a team to try and beat Audi. So I let him go at the earliest opportunity. 

"They didn't ask me. But we're a team, and I'm not racing Esteban. We're fighting together to try and to beat our competitors.

"It was very clear to me that basically, if I didn't make the call, the call would have come one lap later or half a lap later. 

"But that half a lap could have cost Esteban one second, or even more, given how bad my car was at that stage. 

"So it was a very clear call to make. It wasn't one that took me a lot of time."