Oliver Bearman is just one mistake away from a race ban after picking up another penalty point at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
“I left Lance space. Some of these rulings, we need to understand why they were made,” a frustrated Bearman said after the race.
The young Brit is now in a precarious position heading into his Formula 1 career. He’ll start the 2026 season with 10 penalty points on his super license—just two shy of the 12 that would trigger an automatic race ban.
The stewards slapped Bearman with a five-second time penalty and one penalty point in Abu Dhabi for what they called “more than one change of direction to defend his position.”
Their official verdict was pretty clear: “Car 87 was defending its position against Car 18 on the straight prior to Turn 9 and made multiple moves to change direction. This is a breach of the regulations.”
This means Bearman will need to be extremely careful during the first two months of the 2026 season.
He’ll get some relief around the seventh round of the championship, with two points set to expire on May 23 during the Canadian Grand Prix weekend.
Bearman doesn’t hide his confusion about the penalty. “More than one change of direction is the ruling. I didn’t know I wasn’t allowed to break the tow anymore, so that’s strange,” he told GPblog after the race.
“Of course, I was moving to defend my position, but I moved to break the tow, which is one separate thing, and then I defended my position,” he explained. “I left Lance space. I don’t know, some of these rulings, we need to understand why they were made.”
The penalty puts Bearman in a tough spot as he looks ahead to his upcoming F1 career, where he’ll need to balance aggressive racing with staying on the right side of the stewards.
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