Bearman does ‘incredible job’ on last-minute debut

Oliver Bearman marked himself out as a star of the future in Formula 1 on his last-minute debut for Ferrari at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

“Ollie has done an incredible job,” said Ferrari team leader Charles Leclerc, after the 18-year-old Briton qualified 11th, which made him the youngest ever British F1 driver, and the third youngest in history.

“What he has done has been very, very impressive,” said world champion Max Verstappen.

Bearman went to bed on Thursday night expecting to be racing in Formula 2 in Jeddah, after taking pole position for that event.

Then he was told on Friday morning that he would be driving a Ferrari in the grand prix instead.

Bearman’s big chance came because Ferrari’s regular driver Carlos Sainz was diagnosed with appendicitis and had to be taken to hospital for an operation.

Bearman found out only a couple of hours before final practice. Yet once in the car, he immediately impressed – he was soon lapping just 0.3 seconds adrift of team leader Charles Leclerc.

In the end, qualifying did not go quite to plan. After a strong start, Bearman admitted his session became a bit “messy”.

In second qualifying, on his final lap, he hit the wall a glancing blow on entry to the high-speed Turn 21 and 22 chicane. That meant he had to try again, when the tyres were less than optimum. He ended up 0.53secs off Leclerc, and missed out on a place in the top 10 shootout by just 0.036secs.

In the pits, his father watched his son’s progress, living every moment as he strode back and forth in the garage.

But everyone could see what a good job he had done, especially on such a demanding, high-speed street circuit.

Verstappen said: “It’s super-hard to jump in on a track like this.

“I was watching his first few laps in FP3, because that’s where you can judge if someone is a bit comfortable or not in the car. And by lap two, lap three, I was like: ‘OK, that’s a strong start. I like to see that.’

“And, yeah, to be P11, I think only at the time 0.6secs off (the fastest lap), that is more than I think you could have asked from him.

“And I hope, of course, he also enjoyed it a little bit out there because it’s quite stressful, you know, when you come into a new team, basically, a new car and without any experience on this track.

“So, yeah, hopefully he’s happy with himself, also, not that he says, ‘I didn’t make it to Q3’ or whatever, because I think everyone within the paddock has seen that he did a great job.”

Bearman had just one hour in the car before going into his debut qualifying session, missing out on the two sessions on Thursday enjoyed by all the other drivers.

In the end, he was clearly a little disappointed by the outcome, but he, too, seemed to get the big picture.

“Obviously not the circumstances I would like to make my F1 debut,” Bearman said, “and I wish the best to Carlos and hope he recovers well.

“But nonetheless it is a fantastic opportunity and hopefully tomorrow (in the race) I can make up for today.

“I didn’t have the time to get nervous or overthink it. It was so late I had to focus on getting up to speed and catch up on lost time. Missing out on Thursday made my life a bit more difficult.

“On Monday I will feel it and be quite proud. At the moment I am just trying to maximise and bring the team some points but I’m sure on Monday I will step back and punch myself and be quite proud.”

Bearman had not quite come in cold. He enjoyed two practice sessions for the Haas team at grands prix towards the end of last year, and as Ferrari reserve driver has spent quite some time in the team’s simulator working on this year’s car.

Leclerc said: “Ollie is extremely talented and he has shown it once again today.

“But there’s been quite a lot of work done on the simulator and I’m really happy also to see that straight away he found the rhythm because that means that also the guys at the simulator are doing a great job.

“He’s been prepared in the best way possible in order to be ready, which doesn’t take anything off his talent. That has been, again, extremely impressive what he has shown today.

“It’s definitely one of the most difficult tracks of the calendar for sure, being a street track and so fast as well. But he handled it perfectly. As soon as he got with the engineers this morning, he had so much to understand in order for him to be ready.

“We didn’t have much time to speak. The only thing I’ve told him when he came this morning, I was like: ‘Are you excited?’ And he was like: ‘I cannot wait.’ Which, I expected this answer, and it was good to see the excitement for him for his first race in Ferrari.”

Bearman is already focusing on the important matter ahead of him – making ground in the race.

He said: “I have a lot to go through and analysis – longer runs, starts and pit stop things to work on.

“It’s a big step from F2 in terms of physicality but this is what I have been training for in case this opportunity comes up and it finally has and hopefully I can make it stick and do a good job.

“My goal is no mistakes, build it up, get to the end, avoid any carnage, and build up some experience for myself and hopefully bring home some points.”