Ollie Bearman warns Chinese sprint race is "optimistic" as F1 grid adjusts to new rules

Oliver Bearman and Haas boss Ayao Komatsu say the Chinese sprint race will be a “huge challenge” under F1’s new 2026 rules

Haas Formula 1 driver Oliver Bearman has labelled the Chinese sprint race as "optimistic" as the drivers and teams work to adjust to the new 2026 regulations.

The second round of the 2026 season in China will feature the first sprint race of the year, meaning the drivers will only have one practice session to prepare.

While the teams could take part in the Barcelona shakedown from 26-30 January in addition to the two three-day blocks of testing in Bahrain, the British driver explained that having a sprint race so early in the season puts even more importance on being on the ball when they arrive at the season opener in Australia.

"Exactly. That's everyone's fear, I think, heading into the start of the year. I think a Sprint weekend in Round 2 of such a massive regulation overhaul is a bit optimistic, but we'll see what we come up with," Bearman told the media in Bahrain when asked by Motorsport.com how much more complicated a sprint race weekend will be.

"Even more important to make sure that we're on the ball already from Australia at the beginning, and so that we can put those learnings into practice, and certainly the simulator will be critical to make sure that we're on it from the get-go in China, otherwise the gaps are going to be huge in sprint qualifying."

Haas team chief Ayao Komatsu also claimed that the sprint race weekend will be a "huge challenge".

"Oh, that's going to be a huge challenge, man," he said in Bahrain. "Yeah, Shanghai, I'm not looking forward to that, I can't say I'm looking forward to that. One hour practice, get ready for sprint quali, that's going to be a huge challenge.

Oliver Bearman, Haas F1 Team

Photo by: Sona Maleterova / Getty Images

"It's the same for everyone, but it's step by step. So like I said, I think we had decent preparation, learning things, then now we've got to compress everything, refine the procedures, accuracy of everything, to get prepared for the normal race weekend.

"We do one normal race weekend in Melbourne, hopefully it's dry, then going to Shanghai, it's sprint weekend, so it's a steep learning curve, but same for everyone."

Additional reporting by Jake Boxall-Legge.