Regressing Haas "10th best" in F1 after Aston Martin upgrades - Oliver Bearman

A downbeat Oliver Bearman has accepted that Haas is now the “10th best team” in Formula 1 after being overtaken by Aston Martin at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

The American outfit started the 2026 regulation change strongly with points in five of the opening six rounds, but has failed to score in the past five grands prix.

So it is now clinging onto seventh in the championship and a lack of continuous upgrades has contributed to that decline with its last major package coming at Montreal in May.

It led to a Q1 exit last time out for Bearman in Budapest, where Aston Martin brought vast chassis upgrades that helped both Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll finish above Haas.

The Silverstone squad will now enjoy an updated Honda engine at Zandvoort this weekend, so Bearman is pessimistic about Haas’ standing in the pecking order as rivals keep upgrading.

“We had a really, really good first few races where the car was quick, performing well, and we were really happy,” said the 21-year-old, “But then, step by step, others caught up, others overtook, and now they've left us totally behind.

“At the start of the year, we were fighting, we were quicker than [Racing Bull]. I remember overtaking both of them in the race in Australia and driving away, and we wouldn't dream of doing that these days.

“So, it's funny how quickly things change. 2025 was really the first year for us, or one of very few years, where we seemed to have good pace throughout the year.

“We actually improved our relative performance as the year went on, and now 2026 is more of what we've seen from Haas in the past, of starting incredibly strong with a really quick car as a base, but not being able to improve like the others have.

“Quite frankly, we've been overtaken right now. We are the 10th best team. It really hurts, myself and all the others. We were working really hard to make that not be the case, but that's the reality of where we are right now.”

A lack of upgrades can be attributed to the privateer Haas squad having the smallest budget on the grid compared to the factory juggernauts like Mercedes, Ferrari and even Aston Martin.

This is something that has held it back ever since its debut in 2016, but at times it hasn't mattered so much - such as 2025 when Haas actually improved as the season progressed to finish eighth.

But upgrades weren’t so prominent at the end of a regulation cycle, whereas it is the opposite in 2026 with the development race being what decides the ever-evolving pecking order.

So Bearman reckons “that’s the biggest issue” for Haas, which the Briton thinks is now only above newcomer Cadillac despite squads like Williams also struggling this season.

“The fact is that we can't bring as many upgrades as the others,” he added. “When we do upgrade the car, it's competitive and it works, but when the rate of change is so fast, like at the start of a new set of regulations, we can't keep up.

“The way that we started shows that we understand the platform of the car very well, and we know how to make a fast car, but we don't have the resource to continually upgrade the car.

“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.

“Last year, probably we didn't get found out, because it's the last year of a very mature set of regulations.

"Now we come to 2026, where everyone's updating the car. These guys opposite us are bringing a different car every three races. It's insane.

“Did you see the Red Bull from Japan to Miami? It was a different car. We couldn't dream of doing that, ever.”

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