Bearman says he needs to be 'really careful' with penalty points situation

Ollie Bearman conceded he must be “really careful” with his perilous penalty points situation, with the Haas driver just two points from facing a race ban.

Bearman is potentially one infraction away from following in the footsteps of his Haas predecessor, Kevin Magnussen, in receiving a race ban for racking up 12 points in a 12-month period, after picking up two for colliding with Carlos Sainz in Monza.

Ironically, it was Magnussen’s previous sanction that granted Bearman his Haas debut, one year ago in Azerbaijan.

“It’s definitely something that I have to take into account,” said Bearman. “It’s a shame to be at this point, but I just have to have a few clean races for the next few.”

Penalty points can be awarded alongside other sanctions by the stewards for infractions, and Magnussen is to date the only driver to be banned since the system was implemented in 2014.

In a bid to make on-track conduct clearer, a set of Driving Standards Guidelines was created earlier this season. But the black-and-white nature of these has already faced a challenge, with Williams successfully appealing a penalty for Sainz in Zandvoort, while Bearman felt hard done by with his Monza sanction.

“These guidelines... I feel are quite vague in some areas and quite specific in others,” Bearman continued.

“With my incident in Monza, I felt like I was pretty hard done by, but the guidelines state that I don’t deserve any space on the inside in that specific scenario, which, in my view, is a bit harsh. Of course, I’m biased towards myself, but I think a lot of people will agree and say that this was quite a harsh scenario.”

Conceding the difficulty rule makers have in satisfying the drivers, he added: “I think we will never fully be happy with that. It’s really tough to say, honestly, because whatever solution they come up with, I’m sure we’re going to find a new problem with it.

“It’s really difficult to fix the way that we go racing. But being governed by all of these specific rules and trying to think on the way into a corner, ‘Is he even going to give me space’, because you’re trying to think about the guidelines, it’s not really natural, it’s not the way that we’ve grown up racing.”

Bearman’s first penalty points will leave his licence on November 3, meaning that he cannot afford a two-point addition to his record until the Sao Paulo Grand Prix. With only two points being cleared on that date, it is likely that the Briton will be walking a tightrope until next July, by which time another six of his current points will have elapsed.

He concluded: “It’s a shame to be that close, and I’ll just have to play it very carefully.”