Haas driver Bearman not counting on massive advantage from fast starts in Ferrari-powered car

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Haas driver Bearman not counting on massive advantage from fast starts in Ferrari-powered car

2026-03-08 02:28 Last Updated At：02:51

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Haas driver Oliver Bearman says his team is “exactly where we want to be” heading into the Formula 1 season but cautioned that people shouldn't read too much into the fast starts of his Ferrari-powered car in the preseason.

The Ferrari power unit used by the American Haas team raised eyebrows with lightning-fast getaways in preseason testing, boosted by a smaller turbo. But Bearman, who will start Sunday's season-opening Australian Grand Prix from 12th on the grid, isn't banking on it as a silver bullet.

“I think Bahrain (testing) was a bit of an outlier,” Bearman told The Associated Press. “As time goes on, people are going to get used to the starting procedure. I hope I am proven wrong and that we have rocket starts all the year compared to everyone else. But, you know, I’m not counting on it, that’s for sure.”

With or without a turbo boost, the 20-year-old British driver is facing high expectations after an impressive start to his career.

In his F1 debut for Ferrari in Saudi Arabia two years ago, where he stood in for an ill Carlos Sainz at the last minute, Bearman qualified 11th and finished the race in seventh under huge pressure.

Bearman joined Haas later that year for two more stand-in appearances, in Azerbaijan – where he finished 10th and became the first driver to have scored points for two different teams in his first two races; and São Paulo, where he finished 12th.

Last year, in his first full season, Bearman beat his teammate, veteran Esteban Ocon, 13-11 in qualifying events, and 41-38 on points in the races — capped by a fourth-place finish in Mexico. As a member of Ferrari’s Driver Academy, many expect him to end up in Maranello in the future.

Bearman himself was also thrilled with his 2025 season.

“Yeah, I would say so. I think my best races where at the end of the year, which is good," he said. "It shows that I was improving throughout the year. I was enjoying everything very much and learning a lot as well, and that’s obviously very important.

“But also the progress that the team has made has been incredible, and I think we’ve started the preseason exactly how we wanted to with good reliability. We’ve gone through all of the items that we needed to so on that regard, we’re exactly where we want to be.”

Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu couldn’t be happier with his driver.

“He’s such a joy to work with,” Komatsu told the AP. “Obviously, his talented, no doubt. You know, I always knew that he had a huge potential in terms of speed, natural speed. But it was a matter of harnessing that talent, giving him clear focus, clear objectives, etc.”

Being at Haas allows Bearman to develop his craft away from the main spotlight, but with support from global manufacturers in Ferrari and Toyota. The latter is its title sponsor, which builds on the technical partnership it signed in October 2024 for “research, engineering and driver development.” There has been speculation that Toyota's increased involvement in 2026 is a prelude to the Japanese giant buying the can-do team outright, given it spent almost $3 billion from 2002 to 2009 on a failed works campaign.

But Komatsu said the team isn't for sale, and that there have not been any talks about a takeover. He also couldn’t care less that Cadillac, America’s newest F1 team, is dominating the limelight back home with Super Bowl ads and more.

“I’m not worried about limelight. It’s not about limelight,” Komatsu said. “It’s a sporting competition. You know, for me, we are a race team, a single-seater race team owned by Mr. (Gene) Haas, an American entrepreneur – and this is his private team, right? We are a race team. We’re not corporate. I don’t really care about other teams’ identities. I think we are very unique in who we are. We only exist to race. We don’t sell energy drinks. We don’t sell road cars. We’re here to race, right? Everything we do is how to get that trackside result better. We’re focused on that, and if we do that, the result will speak for itself.”

And while Bearman already has a level of maturity and experience that his rare for his age, Haas race engineer Ronan O'Hare said it's easy to forget that Melbourne will only be his 28th F1 start and he still has much to learn.

“He keeps tricking you because he’s so knowledgeable and so experienced like from simulator driving, and driving cars since he was like 8,” O’Hare told the AP in the Albert Park paddock.

“I think, as everyone’s seen, the bit that was missing maybe was the consistency,” O’Hare added. "Small errors creeping in, they’re not always entirely his fault, they’re sometimes circumstantial, but that was a step change we actually took after shutdown last year to aim for more consistency and to stay focused. So, in terms of this year, the target would be scoring points every race – or at least be in a position to. And to be honest we could or should have done that last year.”

AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing

Evacuations begin for passengers on MV Hondius cruise ship off Tenerife hit by hantavirus

TENERIFE, Canary Islands (AP) — The first passengers to be evacuated from the hantavirus-hit cruise ship that is off Spain's Canary Islands arrived Sunday afternoon in Madrid, where they are being taken to a military hospital.

Spanish nationals were the first to leave the MV Hondius, which remains anchored off Tenerife, the largest island in the Spanish archipelago off West Africa's coast. The ship arrived early the same morning.

Planes carrying French and Canadian nationals left Tenerife after the Spanish plane. A Dutch plane was due to depart with Germans, Belgians and Greeks, while an American plane was expected to reach Tenerife around 5:30 p.m. local time (1630 GMT), according to FlightRadar 24, which shows live aircraft flight tracking details.

Maria van Kerkhove, the World Health Organization's top epidemiologist, said that a number of other flights were expected to arrive Sunday, including ones to repatriate passengers to Turkey, the United Kingdom and Ireland.

None of the more than 140 people on the Hondius has shown symptoms of the virus, officials from Spain's health ministry, WHO and cruise company Oceanwide Expeditions said.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus sought to reassure the public, repeating on Sunday that the risk for the general public from the outbreak is low.

Even so, those disembarking and personnel working at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife wore protective gear during the evacuation process, including face masks, hazmat suits and respirators. Video obtained by The Associated Press showed passengers on the tarmac donning similar suits and being sprayed down with disinfectant.

A WHO spokesperson didn't immediately respond to a question from the AP about why such security protocols were being taken, despite officials' repeated reassurances about the low general risk from the virus.

Passengers and some crew members from more than 20 nationalities on board will be evacuated throughout Sunday into Monday.

After reaching Madrid, those evacuated on the first plane will be under quarantine, Spanish health authorities say. Only the 14 Spanish nationals on board will quarantine in the country.

Authorities have said that the passengers and crew members disembarking will be checked for symptoms, have no contact with the local population and will only be taken off the ship once evacuation flights are ready to fly them to their destinations. Tedros and Spain’s health and interior ministers are supervising the operation in Tenerife.

Pope Leo XIV on Sunday thanked the Canary Islands for allowing the arrival of the Hondius.

Hantavirus usually spreads when people inhale contaminated residue of rodent droppings and isn’t easily transmitted between people. But the Andes virus detected in the cruise ship outbreak may be able to spread between people in rare cases. Symptoms usually show between one and eight weeks after exposure.

Three people have died since the outbreak, and five passengers who left the ship are infected with hantavirus, which can cause life-threatening illness.

Passengers and crew members disembarking are leaving behind their luggage, and are allowed to take only a small bag with essential items, a cellphone, a charger, and documentation.

Some crew, as well as the body of a passenger who died on board, will remain on the ship, which will sail on to Rotterdam, Netherlands, where it will undergo disinfection, Spanish authorities said.

The expected sailing time to Rotterdam is around five days, the cruise company said.

The United Kingdom will send planes to evacuate its citizens. Americans on board will be quarantined at a medical center in Nebraska.

Twenty-nine people will be on board the Dutch charter flight, including Dutch nationals and people of other nationalities, the Dutch Foreign Ministry said.

The five French passengers being repatriated Sunday will be hospitalized for 72 hours for monitoring, after which they will quarantine at home for 45 days, France's Foreign Ministry said.

U.K. passengers and crew will be hospitalized for observation once they are flown home, British authorities say.

Australia is sending a plane, expected to arrive on Monday, to evacuate its nationals and those from nearby countries such as New Zealand and unspecified Asian countries, Spanish Health Minister Mónica García said. Its plane will be the last to leave Tenerife, she said.

Norway has sent an ambulance plane to Tenerife with personnel trained to transport patients with high-risk infections, its Directorate for Civil Protection told public broadcaster NRK.

The ambulance plane is owned by the European Union, but operated by Norway.

British Army medics have parachuted onto the remote South Atlantic territory of Tristan da Cunha, where one of the 221 residents has a suspected case of hantavirus.

The patient was a passenger on the MV Hondius and disembarked last month.

The U.K. defense ministry says a team of six paratroopers and two medical clinicians jumped Saturday from a Royal Air Force transport plane, which also dropped oxygen and medical equipment.

Tristan da Cunha is Britain’s most remote inhabited overseas territory, about 1,500 miles (2,400 kilometers) from the nearest inhabited island, St. Helena. The group of volcanic islands has no airstrip and is usually accessible only by boat on a six-day voyage from Cape Town, South Africa.

Meanwhile, a Spanish woman in the southeastern province of Alicante suspected of being infected tested negative for hantavirus, Spanish health authorities said Saturday.

The woman was a passenger on the same flight as the Dutch woman who died in Johannesburg after traveling on the cruise ship.

Suman Naishadham reported from Madrid. Angela Charlton in Paris, Jill Lawless in London, and Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin, contributed to this report.