Inside Bearman’s stunning F1 debut which Verstappen called “incredible”

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 saw the highest average speed of any track outside of Monza. The fact Bearman had already driven that weekend likely counted in his favour.

Having taken pole position for the Formula 2 feature race on Thursday, Bearman received the shock news he wouldn’t take part in it the following afternoon. When Ferrari told him he would take over Sainz’s car, the final practice session was less than three hours away.

Despite that, Leclerc was enormously impressed with how his unexpected new team mate reacted. “He handled it perfectly,” said Leclerc. “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’.”

With only one hour of practice available before qualifying, Bearman needed to keep his car out of the barriers and everyone else to do the same in order to maximise his running. He kept up his end of the bargain, but Zhou Guanyu threw his Sauber into the turn eight TecPro, costing him 15 precious minutes.

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But in the reduced time available to him, Bearman acquitted himself remarkably well. Starting the session on the medium tyre compound he was down to a 1.31.273 within two flying laps.

Race engineer Ricardo Adami began the session telling Bearman to “take your time” and “take your rhythm and build up from there,” now began drip-feeding him tips on where to find tenths.

“Minimum speed turn four the place to focus and keep keeping building up eight and nine, through the high-speed,” said Adami. “But performance is already on a good level, good job.”

The next time around, Bearman gained time at every corner bar the first turn. Adami remained silent throughout the lap, except when Bearman approached the quickest corners in the middle of the lap, where the sight lines are poor, reassuring him: “All clear in front.”

Bearman lopped almost a full second off his previous best. His 1’30.277 was only two tenths of a second slower than Leclerc managed on his first lap on mediums.

Among those keeping an eye on his progress was the world champion, who was impressed by what he saw. “It’s super-hard to jump in on a track like this,” said Verstappen afterwards. “I think what he has done has been very, very impressive.

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“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: ‘Okay, that’s a strong start. I like to see that’.”

Ferrari grabbed the opportunity to give Bearman a practice pit stop – he typically only does one per weekend in F2 – and a handful of practice starts. There was time for the beginning of a race simulation on mediums, over the course of which he steadily worked his way from the mid-33s to the mid-32s; Leclerc ran in the 32s throughout on the same rubber. Zhou’s crash meant there was no time to try the hard tyres, so Bearman’s first experience of those will likely come after he makes his first pit stop in tonight’s race.

Besides mastering a car capable of lapping Jeddah almost 15 seconds quicker than he had gone the day before, Bearman also had to get to grips with the myriad different systems available through his steering wheel. All this had to be done while Ferrari alerted him to other drivers catching him between flying laps, a particularly dangerous problem in Jeddah.

Once Zhou’s wreck was cleared away Adami informed Bearman: “There will be time for one push lap only I’m afraid.” Bearman produced a 1’29.306, almost seven-tenths off Leclerc, but good enough for 10th place. Hopes were raised the rookie could make the cut for Q3.

Qualifying began encouragingly. Bearman’s second lap was nearly half a second quicker than his best lap from practice. Now he was beginning to explore the limits of the car and track, flirting with the wall at the final corner. A 1’28.984 ensured his progression to Q2.

One run was spoiled when he was passed by Fernando Alonso shortly before starting his lap. At the same time, Bearman was perhaps fortunate the stewards chose not to look more closely after the Ferrari driver and Alexander Albon appeared to delay Valtteri Bottas in the middle of one of his flying laps, which the Sauber driver felt was a clear-cut example of impeding.

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With few opportunities to push the car to its limit on a set of soft tyres, the timing of Bearman’s first run in Q2 was unlucky, as it coincided with the red flag caused by Nico Hulkenberg’s stoppage. That left him with one more run to make the cut.

His first lap almost matched his best from Q1. He was taking more risks, kicking up dust as he touched the wall on the inside of turn 21. Bearman didn’t notice it at the time, and Adami chose not to point it out.

With his final effort, Bearman improved to a 1’28.642. His 38th lap of the track was his fastest up to that point, but it left him 0.036 seconds away from denying Hamilton the last place in Q3.

“It was super tough there and very close to Hamilton, four hundredths to P10,” said Adami. “It was a good lap, good last sector,” he added, noting Bearman had lost a small amount of time “at the last corner, probably, the exit.”

“Sorry,” Bearman replied. “It was a messy session.”

“It was a tough one,” Adami sympathised. “It was super difficult, a lot of stress and difficult conditions out there. But you did quite a good job.”

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Given how little preparation and warning he had before being dropped into the pressure-cooker environment of a Formula 1 team – and Ferrari, no less – Bearman had done remarkably well. Without the interruptions to practice and qualifying it’s not hard to believe he would have reached Q3.

It spoke volumes that despite Bearman not making the cut for Q3 he made a huge impression on Verstappen – not only the reigning world champion, but one of only two drivers to make their F1 debut at a younger age than Ferrari’s newcomer.

“To be P11, I think only at the time six tenths off pole, that is more than I think you could have asked from him,” said Verstappen. “So for sure he’s done an incredible job.

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

“So 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.”

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