Ferrari received an unwelcome reliability warning during second practice for the 2026 Azerbaijan Grand Prix when Oliver Bearman was forced to stop his Haas with a power unit failure. Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton encountered no comparable problems with their own Ferraris in FP2, but the issue affecting the Ferrari-powered VF-26 inevitably attracted attention in Maranello.
Oliver Bearman had to park his car in one of the Baku City Circuit’s escape roads during the afternoon session after recognising that something had gone wrong with the power unit. The British driver quickly identified the problem over team radio, telling the Haas pit wall: “My engine broke.”
Oliver Bearman stopped by Ferrari power unit failure in Baku FP2
The incident represented an indirect concern for Ferrari because Haas uses the Italian manufacturer’s power unit. While neither Charles Leclerc nor Lewis Hamilton suffered a similar failure during the session, the technical problem on car number 87 means Ferrari will have an additional reliability issue to assess as the Azerbaijan Grand Prix weekend continues.
Baku is already a demanding venue for Formula 1 power units. High ambient temperatures can increase the challenge of keeping components within their preferred operating range, while the extremely long main straight places the engine under sustained load. Those characteristics mean the circuit can provide a particularly revealing test of both performance and reliability.
For Ferrari, the failure therefore becomes something to monitor carefully over the remainder of the weekend. The Maranello team’s wider power unit and SF-26 developments can be followed through the Ferrari technical analysis section, where the different performance and reliability factors affecting the 2026 car are examined throughout the season.
Haas now waits to learn whether the failure will affect Oliver Bearman’s weekend
The immediate question for Haas is whether the power unit problem will have any concrete consequences for Oliver Bearman during the rest of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. The team, led by Ayao Komatsu, must determine the extent of the damage and whether the affected components can continue to be used without triggering changes that could result in a grid penalty.
Until those checks are completed, it remains unclear whether the technical failure will simply cost Oliver Bearman valuable FP2 running or have a larger impact on his Baku weekend. Ferrari will also be watching the investigation closely, particularly given the demanding conditions that the power unit must withstand around the Azerbaijani street circuit.
The incident also adds another data point to the wider reliability picture across the Formula 1 field. Mechanical failures, retirements and finishing records throughout the season can be tracked using the F1 Reliability & DNF Statistics.
For now, Ferrari can take some reassurance from the fact that Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton completed FP2 without suffering the same problem. However, a Ferrari power unit failure on the Haas means the engineers in Maranello will want to understand exactly what happened before the weekend moves into its decisive qualifying and race phases.
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