Untelevised radio messages between Alex Albon and his race engineer James Urwin have been released following the 2025 Bahrain Grand Prix, with the driver complaining about the driving of Haas rookie Ollie Bearman.
During parts of the Bahrain race, the Williams driver fought closely with Bearman as they competed for the lower-end of the points.
“The way he defends, Bearman, is too much,” Albon is heard saying over team radio as he attempted to overtake the Haas driver.
“Yeah, copy,” Urwin responds.
It got worse for the driver as he got pushed off the track: “Yeah, then he ran me off again exit of 3. Very dangerous,” Albon complained.
Lap 39 saw Albon attempt to pass the young Briton with both drivers benefiting from DRS ahead of Turn 4. Bearman defended his place – something Albon wasn’t happy about.
“I think this guy wants to kill me,” Albon said down his radio. “He’s so dangerous! James, you’ve got to do something, mate.”
As the battle continued, he added more complaints: “Bearman is still moving on the brakes,” he added.
Bearman finished his race in 10th, bringing home one point for the American team, whereas Albon finished out of the points in twelfth after losing a place to Andrea Kimi Antonelli. This was Albon’s first race out of the points this season, with him finishing 5th in Australia, 7th in China, and 9th in Japan.
“We had enough [for the top 10], we had more than enough to be honest,” Albon said after his race was damaged by a badly-timed safety car. “We were coming through the field really well on the hard tyre, we were about to go into a net P8 and then the Safety Car came out at the wrong time.
Oliver Bearman, Haas F1 Team, Alexander Albon, Williams
Photo by: Peter Fox – Getty Images
“We then had to double stack both cars so I lost another two positions in the pit stop and then we were P12.”
He continued: “For me, it feels more like a missed opportunity. We didn’t qualify where we should have, just got a little bit stuck in the pit lane yesterday.
“Today, we rebounded as we should to go from P15 into the points and then we got unlucky with the Safety Car and were out of it again. I don’t necessarily think it was a tricky weekend, just a bit unfortunate and we’ll get back again.”
Bearman, in comparison, was ecstatic about his result.
“Those last 20 laps after the Safety Car restart, I was under a lot of pressure trying to hold position with the Mercedes behind and trying to fight in front as well. It was a tough one, it was a really difficult race but so happy to bring home a point for the team after a really poor Qualifying yesterday.”
