Oliver Bearman can feel aggrieved over his Q1 elimination at Imola, as there was no sign of a red flag on his Haas’ steering wheel when he crossed the line with a time good enough to see him into Q2.

That’s according to former F1 driver turned Sky pundit Anthony Davidson.

New Imola GP evidence as ‘discrepancy’ revealed

Bearman appeared to book his place in Q2 at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix with a last-gasp lap.

But behind him on the track there was drama as Franco Colapinto crashed heavily at the Tamburello chicane, bringing out the red flags.

Bearman had, according to the driver and Haas, crossed the line in time for his lap to count only for the stewards to declare he was ‘3.2 seconds’ too late with the ‘abort signal / red flag showing on the start gantry’.

According to Bearman, no red flag was displayed at that moment he crossed the line, either on the track or on his steering wheel dashboard.

“I mean, we get the red lights on our dash,” he told the media, including PlanetF1.com. “That, for me, didn’t happen until quite a way after I crossed the line.

“Watching the onboard video, it was clear that there was no red flag displayed when I crossed the line.

“So I believe it’s totally unfair to have it deleted. I feel like, once they make a decision – even if it’s wrong, clearly wrong – they’re not going to turn back on it. And that seems a bit harsh.”

Sky analyst Davidson went through the footage in slow-motion and insisted that the only lights Bearman saw ahead of him were the lights to signal the end of the qualifying session.

“It triggered this moment with Ollie Bearman in the Haas,” Davidson explained in his analysis. “You can see that still there’s a yellow flag, but Bearman has passed that part of the track already, so he’s good to carry on his lap time. That’s exactly what he was doing.

“As Bearman comes through the last two corners, we’re looking for is the inevitable red flag. There’s nothing on the right-hand side. Pit lane entry is still okay, and coming up to the line, we’ve still got the yellow flag on. It hasn’t gone red yet.

“The chequered flag is being waved on his right-hand side and yes, we have the red lights in the distance, but that’s to signify the end of session. The clock has ticked down to zero. So that’s what those red lights signify.

“And then if you roll it on, you’re now looking for another panel of red lights coming on. So still, even these lights, that’s just identifying the end of session. So he’s crossed the line.

“He’s looking down at his lap time, thinking, ‘Yeah, that’s a good one’. His name moved up the timing board out of that dropout zone. So he’s thinking, ‘that’s good enough, I’m safe’.”

Bearman also wasn’t given any notification of the red flag on his dash until after he’d completed the lap.

Continuing, Davidson said that after that came “the moment where the next red light comes on. That is the red light, the red flag, and it’s even beaten the board. So the red light comes on the circuit, and this is an interesting point because on the driver’s steering wheel you also get red lights. They come on, these tiny red lights on either side to warn the driver there’s a red light.

“But the interesting thing, is that the red light on the circuit flashes, it comes on before the red light on the steering wheel and the graphics as well, which eventually catch up. So there’s discrepancy between when the red lights are coming on.

“Now the problem is, if anywhere on the circuit there’s a red flag being waved by a marshal somewhere, the race director obviously presses the button and all the red lights come on at the same time around the circuit. We’ve seen a difference with the steering wheel red light coming on already.

“But if there’s a red flag being physically waved, that will always take priority. That’s the thing we can’t see, that’s harder for us to see. That’s something only the race director will know.

“Interestingly, Haas apparently, have been invited to, not told to come to the race stewards and director, have been invited to come and have a chat to see how the race director and the stewards came up with this decision to not allow the lap time that Ollie Bearman saw on his dashboard.”

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