Haas must choose: only Bearman gets Ferrari ADUO

Oliver Bearman called it “night and day.” That is not hype from a young driver chasing headlines. That is the verdict of a man who finished eighth in FP2 at Monza on Friday, running Ferrari’s brand-new ADUO 2 power unit while his team-mate drove the old spec engine and finished P18.

Ferrari introduced its ADUO 2 step for both Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc, available under F1’s Additional Development and Upgrade Opportunities mechanism for engine manufacturers, and its customer teams were told there is only one unit available for each of them right now. Cadillac elected not to run it on either of its cars in Italy. Haas made the opposite call.

Eighth in FP2 and the best Friday since the spring

Haas brought their biggest upgrade package of the season to Monza, including a new chassis and bodywork, as the American team attempts to move closer to the midfield battle. Bearman has failed to score since the Canadian Grand Prix back in May, while team-mate Esteban Ocon last reached the points at the start of June in Monaco.

The run of six races without a single point has left Haas seventh in the constructors’ standings, well adrift of Racing Bulls and Alpine, with Audi just five points behind. Against that backdrop, the feeling inside the garage after Friday was something the team had not had in a long time.

Bearman said it was “a good day, really positive. Definitely our best Friday probably since March or April,” finishing eighth fastest in Free Practice 2. He added that “the car is more predictable,” and that despite running less downforce than at the previous round in Zandvoort, the VF-26 felt more stable through Monza’s high-speed turns.

Ferrari is only obliged to supply one unit per customer team

Ferrari is introducing its second power unit upgrade of the year at its home race, courtesy of the ADUO rulings. Ferrari is bound by regulations to supply the new parts to its customers, but is not necessarily required to provide enough for all cars; only one unit is available to each American squad.

That is the rule that forced the decision. Given the need to squeeze out everything possible at Monza, Haas did not want to wait until two units were available just to be fair to both drivers. The difficult choice was made to give only one car the benefit.

Team principal Ayao Komatsu was direct about the reasoning. Brake improvements and changes to the power steering made before the summer break were given to Ocon first, so Haas felt it was only fair to give Bearman the new power unit at Monza. Komatsu said there was no value in disguising the decision when he explained it to Ocon.

Komatsu also confirmed that previously Haas had taken the more cautious route. “The last time around we didn’t give it to one driver; we waited until we had enough engines to introduce it for both drivers together. But this time, Monza is a very power-sensitive circuit, so it’s a shame to have performance sitting in a garage.”

That is an important admission. It means Haas changed its own policy for this race, which tells you exactly how power-sensitive the team believes Monza to be in 2026. You can see more on how the Italian GP weekend has shaped up for the frontrunners in our piece on Russell topping FP3 as Hamilton and Verstappen refused to yield, and on the strategic picture at Ferrari’s Monza plan, with Hamilton leading and Leclerc following.

Ocon knows the older engine will cost him race time

Ocon was blunt. “I won’t have the full upgrade package. I won’t have ADUO. So I’ll be racing with the old engine. And that’s quite a loss.”

Long periods at full throttle make Monza sensitive to combustion efficiency, while the 2026 cars also have to manage limited electrical energy along the straights. Ocon will receive the latest specification later in the season, but he expects to pay a price for not having it during the Italian Grand Prix weekend.

Head of Car Engineering Hoagy Nidd made clear the engine was not the whole story. A rear-right corner problem stopped Ocon completing his first run, and the session never recovered from there. “I don’t think we’ve given Esteban the best platform to go and do his best lap time today,” said Nidd.

The Friday gap between the two cars was over a second

Ocon ended FP2 1.037 seconds slower than Bearman, 18th against his team-mate’s eighth. Not all of that gap is the engine. The new aero package, the run plan issues, and track position in traffic all matter at Monza. But the direction of the data is clear.

The main improvement from the Ferrari power unit update may become visible through greater energy availability in the second half of the lap, even if the actual advantage proves smaller than the one recorded during Friday’s running. Qualifying, where both units are pushed much harder and traffic is not a factor, will give a much cleaner picture.

One engine, two futures

There is a subtext here that Haas have not addressed publicly. As Ocon edges closer to the exit door at Haas, the team spent three days at Portimao between the Dutch and Italian Grands Prix running Rafael Camara, Leonardo Fornaroli and Ryo Hirakawa, then confirmed the one available ADUO-upgraded unit is going on Bearman’s car. Whether or not that sequence is meaningful, it is the sequence that exists.

Nico Hulkenberg made Haas look like a points-scoring team in 2023 and 2024. Bearman is now being asked to do the same, and on Friday at least, he gave the team reason to believe he can. Verstappen was ninth at Monza on Friday, which shows how close the midfield fight has become when even the champion is not comfortably clear. The window for Haas to score is real, but only one of their drivers has the engine to fully exploit it.

Follow the full Italian Grand Prix weekend on our Oliver Bearman driver profile and across our Italian GP coverage hub.