Ferrari junior driver Oliver Bearman will join the F1 grid as a full time race driver in 2025 with Haas.
The 19-year-old is the first driver the team has confirmed for the 2025 F1 season. He has joined them on a “multi-year” deal.
Bearman said he was “immensely proud” to have secured his F1 debut in his fifth season of racing after graduating from karts. “It’s hard to put into words just how much this means to me,” said the driver.
“To be one of the very few people who get to do the thing what they dreamed of as a child is something truly incredible.”
Bearman made a surprise grand prix debut earlier this season in Saudi Arabia when called to step in to replace Carlos Sainz Jnr after the Ferrari driver developed appendicitis. Despite having only one hour of practice in the SF-24, Bearman qualified in 11th before climbing to finish in seventh.
He will be the first rookie to drive for the team since it began the 2021 season with two newcomers, Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin, both of which were out of the sport by the end of the following year. Ayao Komatsu, who took over as Haas team principal at the beginning of this year, has high hopes for Bearman.
“He’s developed into an incredibly mature driver under the guidance of the Scuderia Ferrari Driver Academy and the world saw that for themselves when he was called in at the last minute to compete at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix,” said Komatsu. “Oliver proved he was more than ready for the task, and we’ve seen that for ourselves running him in the Haas cars in our [first practice] sessions over the past two seasons.”
Bearman will make his third appearance in an official practice for the team this year at Silverstone tomorrow. He will return for the team in Hungary and again in Mexico and Abu Dhabi, where he also drove for them last year.
He is currently competing in his second season in Formula 2 with Prema alongside Mercedes prospect Andrea Kimi Antonelli. Bearman scored his first win of the season in the sprint race at the Red Bull Ring last week, but lies only 12th in the championship. He was unable to compete in Jeddah, despite having taken pole position for the feature race, when he substituted for Sainz.
Although Haas is yet to confirm the identity of Bearman’s team mate, it will not be current driver Nico Hulkenberg, who will leave the team at the end of the season to join Sauber before their transition to Audi in 2026.
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