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Oliver Bearman just got his best result in Formula 1, matched the best result Haas has ever gotten, and may have played a major role in how the F1 World Drivers’ Championship plays out for 2025.
Nobody was expecting to see a Haas driven by an F1 rookie to be in contention for a podium during the Mexico City Grand Prix. But that is exactly where things looked like they were headed early on in the race, as a precarious incident between Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton and George Russell opened the door for Bearman to jump into the fight, where he found himself, quite literally, wheel-to-wheel with Verstappen himself.
About the moment, Bearman said to Sky Sports reporters, “When you're racing someone like Max, you know, he doesn't give you an inch. So, you need to fight the same way back.
“And honestly, to go wheel-to-wheel with him is a very cool moment as well, because I was watching him since I started watching F1 basically, and I think he's the best driver in F1.”
And while he never made it back up to P3 after that round of pit stops–largely due to a thrilling second stint by Verstappen that saw him on the tail of Charles Leclerc for P2 by the end of the race–Bearman did brilliantly to fend off some big names in the field and show us that he Haas what it takes to fight among the best of the best.
“I held off Max in the first stint,” Bearman noted, “I held off the Mercs in the second, and I held off [Oscar Piastri’s] McLaren in the third one. So I was under a lot of pressure.”
Yet the young Brit kept a cool head as he fought off all of these opponents in an important moment for F1’s smallest team.
“We've been working really hard,” Bearman said of the effort the team has put in on F1 TV. “We've brought an upgrade on the car and to validate the hard work of the team, with the P4 and the P9, both cars in the points. It's a really special feeling.”
Indeed, this is a P4 that Bearman should truly be proud of. He has been on an upswing in his driving lately, getting his third points-scoring finish for Haas, and matching the P4 Romain Grosjean scored for them back at the 2018 Austrian Grand Prix, their best result to date.
What’s more, he may have changed the tides in the fight for the Drivers’ title, as keeping Piastri behind him in fifth during the final stages of the race allowed Lando Norris to take the lead in the drivers’ standings for now. As things stand right now, Norris is one point up on Piastri, and 36 points up on Verstappen.
The full race results of the 2025 F1 Mexico City Grand Prix are below:
Cover image via Ferrari Media Centre
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