Haas to ‘manage it carefully’ after Ollie Bearman’s costly driving at Hungarian GP

Haas boss Ayao Komatsu praised Oliver Bearman’s blistering pace but said Hungary’s floor damage showed the “fine margins” they must manage better

Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu has commented on Oliver Bearman's exceptional pace despite the costly floor damage that seemed to plague the rookie's weekend at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Speaking ahead of the 2025 Dutch Grand Prix, Komatsu gave further details on how his British driver damaged the floor a number of times during the weekend ahead of the summer break.

"He was one of the quickest through Turn 4, if not the quickest," he explained. "I remember talking with Ryo [Hirakawa] on the pitwall, 'he's going to damage the floor sooner or later.' Then next run, he went wide and damaged it."

The driver was quick to be on the pace, but retired on lap 48 after substantial floor damage. While the team chief appreciates his willingness to push the limits of his machinery, he admits it comes with its drawbacks.

"That's just a double-edged sword, isn't it?" Komatsu said. "You know, Ollie is so unbelievably quick. And when he's confident, he can just put the car on high-speed corners on the edge straight away."

Oliver Bearman, Haas F1 Team

Photo by: Simon Galloway / LAT Images via Getty Images

He added that it's something he will have to manage with Bearman.

"I think it's difficult because you can say that's come from experience, but also, other drivers were taking more margin in FP1. But for Ollie, we just got to manage it carefully because you don't want to take the edge off him because that's what makes him so quick. But, of course, you don't want to be damaging the floor every single session."

Komatsu continued, "It's a fine balance. So, for instance, remember we put him in Brazil last year, last-minute call-up, and then he beat Nico Hulkenberg three tenths in the qualifying sprint quali.

"The ability to be able to do that is the same ability that he can put the car straightaway on the limit in FP1, Turn 4 in Budapest like that. So you can't take that all away, but it's just about finding the right balance to manage it."

The blame isn't entirely on the driver, he admits.

"I think that's not only Ollie, it's just about the team. We saw it. We could have intervened earlier and said: 'Ollie, you just take a bit more margin on the Turn 4. That's a floor breaker.' And then if you change the floor, you lose the reference.

"So, again, we talked about that process as well. Going back to your question about fine margins, these are the fine margins. So, again, from team-side communication, we could have done better.

"So we just got to keep remembering as much as he's so talented, he's still a rookie. So we got to manage it better as a whole team. And he knows that we have all the open conversation about things like this. So we should be managing it better."