Some drivers hide behind PR waffle when their car is a dud. Oliver Bearman just told everyone exactly where Haas stands, and it is not pretty. Tenth. Last. Only above Cadillac, a team that has not scored a single point all season.
Speaking after a miserable run that has seen Haas fail to score in five straight grands prix, the 21-year-old did not sugarcoat anything. Aston Martin’s Hungarian upgrade blitz shoved Haas down the order, and Bearman’s response was refreshingly blunt rather than the usual diplomatic nonsense drivers are trained to produce.
From Points Machine to Backmarker in Half a Season
Haas started 2026 like a team that had finally cracked it. Points in five of the first six races. Overtaking Racing Bulls on track in Australia and driving off into the distance. It was the kind of start that had people wondering whether the American outfit had actually solved the riddle of a clean-sheet regulation change.
Then reality bit. Hard.
“We had a really, really good first few races where the car was quick, performing well, and we were really happy. But then, step by step, others caught up, others overtook, and now they’ve left us totally behind.” – Oliver Bearman
That is not spin. That is a driver watching his championship hopes evaporate in real time and telling it straight, as quoted by Motorsport.com.
The Aston Martin Ambush
Budapest was the tipping point. Aston Martin rolled into Hungary with a serious chassis overhaul, and both Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll finished ahead of Bearman, who exited in Q1. Considering Alonso himself has been coy about his own future beyond 2026, as detailed in our piece on Alonso’s undecided 2027 plans, it is a strange twist that his team is now the one doing the bullying.
To rub salt in the wound, Aston Martin arrives at Zandvoort this weekend with an updated Honda power unit. Haas, meanwhile, last brought a proper upgrade package back in Montreal in May. May. That is not a typo, that is nearly three months of standing still while everyone else sprints past.
Money Talks, Haas Listens Quietly From the Back
This is the part where the excuse writes itself, except it happens to be true. Haas runs the smallest budget on the grid, dwarfed by factory operations like Mercedes and Ferrari, and even by Aston Martin’s increasingly serious factory push. Under a stable regulation set, that gap can be masked by clever engineering and incremental gains, which is exactly what happened in 2025 when Haas actually improved as the season wore on to finish eighth.
But 2026 is not a stable regulation set. It is a full reset, and full resets reward whoever can churn out new parts fastest. Haas cannot. Bearman put a number on it, and it is damning.
“If the others are putting on an upgrade every three races, we’re only able to do it every nine races, and that’s not quick enough.” – Oliver Bearman
Three races versus nine. That is not a gap, that is a different sport. While Alpine has been quietly out-developing half the grid and Ferrari overhauls its floor to chase Mercedes, Haas is stuck hoping its original design holds up against a field that refuses to stand still.
Red Bull as the Cautionary Comparison
Bearman’s most pointed remark was not even about Aston Martin. It was about Red Bull, whose relentless upgrade cycle has become the benchmark for how fast a well-funded team can move.
“Did you see the Red Bull from Japan to Miami? It was a different car. We couldn’t dream of doing that, ever.” – Oliver Bearman
Worth noting that Red Bull’s aggressive development has not exactly translated into title contention this year, with Max Verstappen sitting sixth in the standings on 109 points despite committing his future to the team through 2030. So even limitless upgrades are no guarantee of results. But at least Red Bull gets to fail while trying something new every fortnight. Haas gets to fail while waiting for its next parcel to arrive.
Cadillac Below, Nobody Else In Sight
Bearman reckons Haas now sits above only newcomer Cadillac, a team that has not scored a single point all season and is currently mired in its own off-track drama after TWG denied reports of a sale amid a federal investigation into owner Mark Walter. That is a low bar to clear, and Haas is only just clearing it.
Williams, also struggling this season, which tells you how far the once-promising American project has fallen. Haas currently sits seventh in the constructors’ standings on 21 points, a number that has not moved in five races and will not move anytime soon if the upgrade drought continues.
No Fairytale Ending Here
There is no neat resolution to this one. Haas cannot conjure a bigger budget out of thin air, and Formula 1’s cost cap does not discriminate between teams that want to spend more and teams that simply cannot. Bearman’s honesty is admirable, but honesty does not buy carbon fibre or wind tunnel time.
What happens next is grim but predictable. Haas limps through the remainder of the season clinging to whatever scraps it banked early on, while Aston Martin, freshly emboldened by new investment including Woody Johnson’s arrival on the board, keeps pulling away. Meanwhile speculation over Esteban Ocon’s Haas future for 2027 only adds to the sense of a team eating itself from the inside. Bearman deserves credit for telling the truth. Whether Haas deserves credit for putting him in a car worth telling the truth about is another matter entirely.
