Incoming Haas Formula 1 driver Ollie Bearman has already made important impressions on the American squad concerning his “maturity” and “ability to understand the bigger picture”.
This is the view of team principal Ayao Komatsu, who has signed Bearman to race alongside Esteban Ocon in an all-new 2025 Haas driver line-up.
Ferrari junior Bearman, who has been impressing Haas since he made a rookie practice appearance in Mexico last year, was able to show how he could handle the various pressures of contesting a race weekend for a midfield team involved in a close championship battle [with RB] during his latest one-off race this year in place of the banned Kevin Magnussen in Azerbaijan.
Having finished seventh for Ferrari while replacing the appendicitis-addled Carlos Sainz in Saudi Arabia at the start of the season, Bearman scored another point with 10th in Baku.
When asked by Autosport if he had been surprised by this return given Formula 2 driver Bearman’s lack of experience at the top level, Komatsu insisted: “I’m not surprised.
“But this is not to take anything away from Ollie. I’m not surprised because I’ve seen so much good stuff with him in the FP1s that that’s what I expected.
“The very first time he drove for us in Mexico FP1 [in 2023] – what really impressed me was his ability to understand the bigger picture – understand the role he needs to play, what he needs to execute [and] when. And also how quickly he can learn.
Oliver Bearman, Haas VF-24
Photo by: Dom Romney / Motorsport Images
“For Baku, the objective was very different. [It’s a] totally different mindset during the whole race weekend [compared to just practice outings], but in terms of what he did – what he executed, how quickly he learned – that’s everything I saw in from Mexico the very first time we ran him in FP1.
“Yeah, of course, FP3 [where Bearman crashed on his first push lap in Baku] was a setback.
“So that’s one thing I didn’t know – how he was going to deal with the setback like that.
“But then again, he was really good, managed to then switch and be focused, go back to what he’d done well on Friday, and then hit the Q1 like that. So that was brilliant.
“It’s impressive. But that’s what I expected.”
Komatsu also hailed Bearman’s “maturity” when asked to swap positions with temporary team-mate Nico Hulkenberg during the first Baku race stint – as the Briton was lapping too slowly obeying…
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