McLaren the outlier in F1's tight field: 'They found new performance ceiling'

Why McLaren is dominating the F1 season so far, is pretty clear for Haas F1 driver, Oliver Bearman, who enjoys the battles that spring up across the tightly knitted field.

'Everyone has reached ceiling in F1... well, except McLaren'

During the FIA Thursday drivers' press conference, Oliver Bearman was asked regarding the closeness of the F1 grid. "It's really cool. I mean, you know, being this far into a set of regulations means that, you know, everyone is getting closer to the ceiling of performance."

However, what the reality for all F1 teams is, is not the same for the current championship dominant outfit. Yeah, well, except maybe McLaren, who seemed to have found a different ceiling," clarifies Bearman.

'Success in the F1 midfield requires perfection'

In the F1 feeder series, drivers only get 1 practice session, then it's time to head into qualifying. Bearman saw with kind eyes the possibility of progressing across the three free practice sessions drivers in F1 get before the first relevant sessions are held.

"It's cool to see how close everything is in the midfield and it's crazy how you need to be on it with every lap. Coming from F2 to F1, I was really excited and looking forward to having time to build up through FP1, 2, and 3."

In the 2025 F1 season opener, the Australian Grand Prix, though, Bearman learned how valuable the FP sessions were the hard way, being unable to get hardly any running at all ahead of the qualifying session and the Grand Prix itself.

"But then you realize that all of those laps count towards your qualifying lap. So every lap you need to be absolutely on it. And if you miss one lap, you mess it up or the balance isn't there. It hurts you down the line. And of course, it maybe hurts us rookies a little bit more, not having driven a lot of these tracks before in F1 and stuff like that.

"It's really cool and annoying. Depends on what side you're on. But it's really nice to be in such a tight battle. I think the margin from Q1 to Q2 and even Q2 to Q3 all year has been less than a tenth. So you need to be on top of your game and that's what we're all here for."