Until yesterday, Oliver Bearman’s participation in Formula 1 race weekends amounted to a pair of practice session appearances for Haas at the end of last year.
Haas were immediately impressed by his assured and mature performance. But Bearman, who only tested an F1 car for the first time last October, felt he needed a lot more running before being ready to make the step up – as Oscar Piastri had prior to his debut last year.
“He showed that preparation is really important,” said the 18-year-old. “Once you join F1, you’re going up against guys with a lot of races under their belt, and coming in as a rookie is a difficult job. It’s something that we’ve thought about and it will be really important that before I start an F1 campaign I need to be really prepared.
“So hopefully that looks like more FP1s and maybe some private testing as well [next year]. I don’t have any say on that. But in an ideal world, that would be how I approach an F1 season.”
Ferrari planned more test outings for Bearman this year, beginning with a run in their 2022 car last month, and six more practice runs at Haas. With Lewis Hamilton signed to join Charles Leclerc at the team next year, no doubt the medium-term plan for Bearman involved an apprenticeship at a Ferrari customer team.
Then Carlos Sainz Jnr fell ill during the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix weekend, and Ferrari had the opportunity to give Bearman a taste of a real race weekend ahead of schedule.
The fact Ferrari chose to give Bearman the opportunity and not one of their two other reserve drivers is an interesting question, and one which may indicate how much of a talent they regard him as. The team said only that Bearman was their designated reserve driver for this weekend, instead of Antonio Giovinazzi, who already has 62 F1 races under his belt, or Robert Shwartzman.
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Unlike Bearman, neither had clashing race commitments this weekend. Both have driven the Jeddah track, though only Giovinazzi at this level, and his last appearance in an F1 car ended in a crash five laps into a practice outing for Haas at the Circuit of the Americas.
Jeddah is an unusually demanding track, with many fast corners and poor sight lines. “It’s definitely one of the most difficult track of the calendar for sure, being a street track and so fast as well,” said Leclerc yesterday. Max Verstappen’s pole position lap yesterday…
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