Albon: Bearman could have been radioed earlier before Mexico FP1 clash
Stewards deemed neither Albon nor Bearman to blame for Turn 9 collision in Mexico GP practice
Alex Albon chose not to blame Oliver Bearman for their Mexico Grand Prix FP1 clash, and felt that Ferrari told its reserve driver too late that the Williams Formula 1 driver was approaching.
Albon came across Bearman on the run-up to the high-speed sequence of Turns 7-8-9 and lifted off in anticipation of encountering the Ferrari. This caused his FW46 to lose grip and it began to snap, resulting in Albon swiping Bearman at Turn 9 and subsequently ending up in the wall at Turn 10.
In the immediate aftermath, Albon was heard to refer to Bearman as an “idiot” over the radio. However, the Anglo-Thai driver changed his thoughts on the incident.
Instead, he feels that Ferrari could have done more to warn Bearman – running as an FP1 rookie driver for Austin winner Charles Leclerc – of the situation, and that the young Briton was caught out by the faster closing speeds in F1.
“I think he got told, listening to the radio, very late that I was coming up behind him,” Albon said.
“He tried his best to speed up into the two or three high-speed corners, we caught each other at the worst moment on track that you can.
“I think there was a 100km/h difference in terms of speed. I don’t blame myself, but I don’t think it’s all on Ollie.
“I think he could have been told a bit better, and of course he’s new, the closing speeds in F1 are much higher than F2. But it’s not his fault.”
“He tried his best to speed up into the two or three high-speed corners, we caught each other at the worst moment on track that you can.
“I think there was a 100km/h difference in terms of speed. I don’t blame myself, but I don’t think it’s all on Ollie.
“I think he could have been told a bit better, and of course he’s new, the closing speeds in F1 are much higher than F2. But it’s not his fault.”
The incident was investigated by the stewards, but deemed to be not worthy of further action; the report stated that “both drivers agreed that Bearman’s positioning was not unreasonable, but was unfortunate as it was close to Albon’s line. Had Bearman been slightly further down the track it would not have resulted in an incident. All parties agreed that it was a racing incident.”
Following the severe damage to his Williams, Albon did not take part in the second practice session as extensive repairs continued throughout the run-time of the session.Reflecting on the lost running, Albon said that he hoped the use of FP2 as a Pirelli tyre test would mitigate the damage to his weekend, as drivers participating ran with unmarked 2025 prototype tyres.
“Two laps is frustrating – we’ve got a lot of work to do tomorrow,” Albon added.
“But hopefully [FP2 is] less important than a normal weekend, obviously FP2 was a Pirelli test. So in some ways, possibly less learned from other teams because they weren’t running tyres from this year.
“I’m hoping that it just means the lack of track time is less compromising.”
