Bearman handed 10-place grid penalty for overtaking under red flags

The Monaco Grand Prix stewards have hit Oliver Bearman with a 10-place grid penalty for overtaking while practice was red-flagged.

Bearman has also been given two penalty points on his licence, putting him on a total of four.

The Haas driver told the stewards he chose not to slow “abruptly” because he felt it could have created a dangerous situation. As a result he passed Sainz between the Swimming Pool complex and Rascasse.

However the stewards disagreed, stating the red flags were shown well before the incident in question. They added there was “no mitigating factor” for Bearman’s actions and therefore handed him a stiff penalty.

“Well prior to the overtake, the session had been red-flagged. The team informed the driver rather late, just before the overtake happened. However, it is clear from the video footage that there was a light panel directly in front of the driver which showed the red flag; and the dashboard also indicated the red flag well before the overtake took place.

“The regulations require the drivers to ‘immediately’ reduce speed and proceed slowly back to their respective pits (Article 2.5.4.1 b)). The same regulations caution drivers of the fact that in a red flag situation, ‘overtaking is forbidden’ and that drivers should ‘remember that race and service vehicles may be on the track…’.

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“The driver claimed that he saw the red flags but decided not to slow down abruptly because he felt that slowing down abruptly would have been more dangerous and that what he did was a safer way of handling the situation.

“We disagreed with his decision to not take steps to slow down sufficiently to avoid overtaking another car and instead proceeding slowly back to the pits, as required. The whole purpose of requiring drivers to slow down immediately is for safety – they will not know what is in front of them or the reason for the red flag being shown. This is particularly so in a track like Monaco.”

The stewards also explained why Yuki Tsunoda was briefly placed under investigation for failing to slow for yellow flags, then cleared. “While we had initially indicated an intention to investigate the incident after the session, our review of the telemetry established clearly that he had slowed down, thereby rendering it unnecessary to investigate this further,” they said.

Oliver Bearman’s penalty points

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