F1 star becomes second driver to spin in 2026 car

Bearman, Leclerc, Sainz and Piastri walking through the Spanish GP paddock — Photo: © IMAGO

Formula 1

F1 star becomes second driver to spin in 2026 car

Not the ideal first outing of the year

By Chris Deeley.

Sunday 25 January 2026 17:00

Highly tipped to replace Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari, Haas youngster Ollie Bearman has started his 2026 with a spin at the Italian team's test track.

The American team went out for some shakedown running on Saturday in Maranello, just a day after Ferrari themselves took the SF-26 out on track for the first time.

To be fair to Bearman, the weather in northern Italy is currently very bleak, and the spin was so gentle, at such low speed, that he didn't even leave the track. Also...nobody at Ferrari's actually judging him on a shakedown run in late January, obviously (although if any F1 team was going to be sufficiently idiosyncratic to think that was important, it would probably be Ferrari).

Bearman hoping to use 2025 experience

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Bearman is coming into his second full season as an F1 driver after outscoring team-mate Esteban Ocon in 2025, thanks in large part to a late-season run of five consecutive points finishes between Singapore and Las Vegas.

It's broadly unclear how Haas will fare this year under the new set of regulations, and likely will be until the first race of the season in Australia, as teams attempt to fine-tune their cars and hide their progress from rivals.

“I really upped my game, I felt like in the second half of the season, I started to put down some really some results that I was really happy with, and that was critical for me. I’m excited to continue that this year.”