Haas F1’s Oliver Bearman receives 10-place grid penalty at Monaco Grand Prix for overtaking under red flag during free practice.
The stewards of the Monaco Grand Prix have handed Oliver Bearman the maximum grid penalty of 10 places for overtaking under red flag conditions during free practice.
They determined that the Haas F1 driver overtook Carlos Sainz’s Williams without any mitigating circumstances after the second free practice session had been suspended.
Bearman was also given two penalty points on his license, bringing his total to four.
The Haas driver explained to the stewards that he chose not to “brake abruptly,” believing it could have created a dangerous situation. He overtook Sainz between the Swimming Pool complex and Rascasse.
However, the stewards disagreed, stating that the red flags had been displayed well before the incident. They added there were “no mitigating circumstances” for Bearman’s actions and imposed a severe penalty accordingly.
Well before the overtake, the session had been halted with a red flag. The team informed the driver rather late, just before the overtake. However, the footage clearly shows a red flag light panel directly in front of the driver; the dashboard also displayed the red flag well before the maneuver.
The regulations require drivers to “immediately” reduce speed and return slowly to their respective garages (Article 2.5.4.1 b)). The same rule reminds drivers that when a red flag is shown, “overtaking is prohibited” and they must “remember that race and support vehicles may be on track…”
The stewards contested his decision not to slow sufficiently to avoid passing another car and to return slowly to the pits, as required. The primary reason for requiring drivers to reduce speed immediately is safety: they do not know what lies ahead or why the red flag was shown. This is especially critical on a circuit like Monaco.
The race stewards also explained why Yuki Tsunoda was briefly under investigation for not slowing under yellow flags.
“Although we initially announced our intention to investigate the incident after the session, our telemetry analysis clearly showed that he had slowed down, making any further investigation unnecessary.”
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