Oliver Bearman: The British Teenager Making F1 History
Who is Oliver Bearman and why is he racing for Ferrari in Formula 1 this weekend?
Tuning in for Qualifying on Friday afternoon will have given some a shock to see a new name on the timing screen. Not as much of a shock as that very man got a few hours before.
Oliver Bearman, born the same day Fernando Alonso finished P2 in the Spanish Grand Prix on 8th May 2005, will be the youngest Brit to compete in an F1 race since Lando Norris and the youngest driver to enter a Grand Prix weekend in a Ferrari, but how did he get here?
Born in Chelmsford in Essex, Bearman has been driving competitively for over half of his life. Starting in karts at just eight-years old, he stepped up into single seater racing in 2020. At the end of 2021 he became a member of the Ferrari Driver Academy, also signing with PREMA Racing for the 2022 Formula 3 season. He finished the year with one win, seven podiums, and third in the championship, only seven points behind the winner. After just one season in the series, he was promoted to Formula 2, again with PREMA for 2023. Upping his game, he took four wins in his rookie season, both the sprint and feature race in Baku, and each of the feature races in Barcelona, and Monza, finishing sixth in the Championship and keeping his seat for the 2024 Formula 2 series where he’s now a favourite for the title.
This weekend in Jeddah won’t be the first time Bearman has driven an F1 car. Last year he drove for Haas in two free practice sessions in Mexico and Abu Dhabi – part of new sporting regulations introduced in 2022 to require teams to run a rookie (defined as a driver who has taken part in no more than two Formula 1 World Championship races in their career) for two first free practice sessions during the year. In October 2023, to rack up some miles towards his Super License, Bearman drove a 2021-spec Ferrari at Fiorano, Italy.
A Super License is essentially an F1 driver’s driving license consisting of several requirements to ‘qualify’ them to drive an F1 car, one being the completion of 300km in a ‘representative’ F1 car over no more than two days. Amongst other requirements, there’s also a theory test, as with a standard driving license, as well as a points system based on finishing position in various single seater series. Towards the end of the year and shortly after completing more laps in the Haas F1 car for the team’s 2023 post-season testing, Bearman was confirmed as a reserve driver for both Haas and Ferrari in 2024 alongside racing in his second Formula 2 season.
From scoring no points in Bahrain, round two of the 2024 Formula 2 season saw Bearman secure pole position for the feature race in Jeddah. When he woke up on Friday expecting to fight for another F2 win, he was instead promoted last-minute to take part in his first ever Formula 1 race.
Ferrari driver, Carlos Sainz, who had skipped media duties on Wednesday had been struggling in the car on Thursday’s practice sessions describing it as the “toughest” day in an F1 car of his career. It was later announced on Friday that he had been admitted to hospital with appendicitis and is now recovering in hospital, meaning Ferrari were down a driver. Bearman was called on just hours before Qualifying to take part in the third and final practice session of the weekend. Bearman himself described the difference between the two levels by explaining that he felt the limiting factor of an F2 car is the car itself, but Formula 1 is at the limit of the driver.
After just one session in the SF-24, Bearman outqualified four F1 race winners. Securing P11, and very narrowly missing out on Q3 with a lap time only 0.036s behind seven-time world champion Sir Lewis Hamilton. Hamilton spoke on the rookie’s performance to F1 saying, “to jump into a car in FP3 and deliver the way he has - really, really impressive, really happy for him to have the opportunity.” Bearman himself was still critical of his performance, telling Sky F1, “the racer in me knows that the car was quick enough to be in Q3, so a bit disappointed with that but I think when I look back in a couple of days, I’ll be quite proud of what I’ve managed to do today.”
Bearman’s dad said after the session that he is “extremely proud” and isn’t placing any expectations onto his son, telling him to “just enjoy it.” David Bearman watched on from the garage during qualifying with varying emotions of pride, nerves, and excitement for this incredible new talent in Formula One.
Casting back to Monza 2022, when reserve driver Nyck De Vries stood in for Alex Albon, who was coincidentally also ruled out of the race due to appendicitis, impressed enough to earn himself a permanent seat for 2023 with Alpha Tauri (now RB). With over half the grid’s contracts expiring before next season, could this be the chance for Oliver Bearman to secure himself a seat for 2025?
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