Jenson Button backs Ollie Bearman after complaints about unfair F1 rule

Haas star Ollie Bearman received support from champion Jenson Button on social media after the Brit complained about F1’s rookie rule.

Ahead of the 2025 F1 season, the rules were changed to accommodate more opportunities for rookies to make further FP1 appearances, with teams required to run two rookies per car in a season.

At the Mexican GP, nine rookies competed in FP1 with Lewis Hamilton, Lando Norris, Max Verstappen, Carlos Sainz, Pierre Gasly, Lance Stroll, George Russell, Liam Lawson and Bearman all vacating their seats for the session.

While Bearman is in his first season of F1 he is not technically a rookie because he competed in three races last year, yet arguably still needed the experience of all three practice sessions in his first weekend driving an F1 car around the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.

Bearman unhappy with F1 rookie rule

Speaking to the media at the Mexican GP, Bearman bemoaned having to lend his seat up to Ryo Hirakawa in FP1 and that he shouldn’t be in a situation where he has to give up a session.

“It's [Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez] a tough track, and I probably underestimated how important it is to even do FP1,” he said.

“So again, it's tough. It's my rookie season, but I'm still having to miss FP1. In my position, I should be able to do FP1 in a weekend like this, but the fact is that I have to give it up.

“You have to give them up, so anyway it's going to hurt you regardless of where you do it. If I was to repeat the season, I'd probably do it in tracks that I know a lot more, like Abu Dhabi and stuff like that.

“But the facts are that I'm still a rookie, this is my first full season, and I'm still having to give up FP1s. I shouldn't even be in this situation where I'm having to give up FP1s.”

Bearman even went as far to say that he wish he hadn’t got that third F1 race opportunity in 2024, and added: “I guess those three races I got last year, where I am now, I probably would have only done two races to get an FP1 this weekend, and maybe we could have been a little bit faster today.”

F1 champion Jenson Button responded to an article containing the quotes on X, where he wrote in the replies: “I agree.”

Whether F1 take stock of these complaints and change the rule for 2026 remains to be seen, with Bearman in the end making it to Q3 in qualifying and securing a starting grid slot of P10.

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