Introducing F1's new rookies: Oliver Bearman, Ferrari's next big thing

For the fourth part of a mini-series where Motorsport.com is assessing the early Formula 1 careers of the six 2025 rookies, today we’re introducing Oliver Bearman. He, more than any other F1 newbie this year, is responsible for the current large rookie crop.

After all, it was Bearman’s one-off appearance for Ferrari in the 2024 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix that made the F1 paddock sit up and pay attention to how a highly-rated youngster can perform if given the right chance – one really denied to previous Formula 2 champions Felipe Drugovich and Theo Pourchaire.

Bearman’s big break most famously came about because of then Ferrari star Carlos Sainz requiring urgent appendicitis surgery in Jeddah.

And, as that was the first of three F1 starts Bearman made last year, like Liam Lawson he occupies a different place to the other rookies in terms of already possessing considerable previous F1 experience.

Although Bearman continued to impress Haas with his Baku and Brazil stand-in appearances for Kevin Magnussen later last year – after first wowing team principal Ayao Komatsu with his skills in a rookie practice outing at the 2023 Mexican round – everything that’s happening now comes back to what he did in Jeddah.

Bearman had by then raced up the junior formula ladder, winning the 2021 ADAC and Italian Formula 4 titles. Elevated into Formula 3 the following year, he finished third.

Bearman then spent two years in Formula 2 – winning seven times, including four as a rookie in 2023 – but his F1 substitute appearances thwarted a 2024 title tilt even around his squad Prema Racing struggling to get the best from the category’s new car early that year.

Bearman burst onto the scene with impressive display as Sainz stand-in

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

By taking Sainz’s car to a seventh-place finish in Jeddah, without the full complement of practice sessions to gel further, Bearman showed that he could be trusted to get at least enough of the job done at F1 level. This was, after all, as his temporary team-mate Charles Leclerc showed that Saturday, a car that could’ve been on the Jeddah podium.

But Bearman’s result also showed what could be done when a young driver commanding a fraction in salary terms of a long-established F1 star was backed with conviction.

And Komatsu, needing to maximise squad owner Gene Haas’s existing investment to secure more at the American team, saw enough to convince him Bearman was worth fully signing for 2025. Here his salary is said to be minimal due to his ongoing Ferrari junior links.

Intriguingly, it has even been suggested to Motorsport.com that, had Komatsu been in charge of Haas in late 2023 after Bearman’s impressive Mexican debut, then he might’ve been making his rookie bow at Magnussen’s expense this time a year ago.

Like fellow rookie Gabriel Bortoleto, Bearman comes from a wealthy family, with his father David Bearman the founder and CEO of the Aventum insurance company.

The resources such backing builds have given Bearman a considerable support team. In Baku, for example, he was accompanied by an assistant and a mind coach. David is surely set to make further regular appearances in the F1 paddock (he was in Bahrain for testing, for instance), along with Bearman’s manager, Chris Harfield.

They’re all switched on to the business potential of Bearman’s F1 stint, arranging a dedicated stand at January’s ASI show in Birmingham, which sold the Briton’s personal merchandise and hosted an autograph session so popular with fans its queue closed hours before Bearman arrived to take part.

Bearman benefits from having a strong support network around him

Photo by: Ferrari

Such an array of support will be helpful for a rookie in pushing away outside noise, as well as providing the 19-year-old with quick reassurance if things awry.

That said, one of Bearman’s strengths as a driver is his ability to quickly move on from mistakes and challenges, with the Baku event providing another handy example here.

Early in that race, Bearman’s pace was too conservative for the tyres he was initially running – as dictated by Haas’s strategy.

Bearman complained when asked to move aside for Nico Hulkenberg – with whom he gelled well after his youthful exuberance broke through what Motorsport.com understands was a slightly cool first reception from his second temporary F1 team-mate of 2024 – but even after complying, rescued his race.

He battled Lewis Hamilton well and then nipped by Hulkenberg in the aftermath of Sergio Perez’s shunt with Sainz late on. This showed positive instincts shining through in a tricky situation.

Going off repeatedly while standing in again for Magnussen in Brazil is, however, the most recent memory F1’s collective hive mind really has of Bearman. That’s other than a stone flicking off his car on the last morning of Bahrain testing and shattering the glass side start/finish control gantry.

The Bahrain event had Bearman and new Haas team-mate Esteban Ocon mainly go through the strict tyre management drills Haas employed so well with Hulkenberg and Magnussen last year.

“I’m going away from this test wanting a little bit more,” Bearman said as the test ended. “There’s no denying that. I missed out on low-fuel runs pretty much through a few issues that we had. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to do the performance runs that I was hoping for and that really helped me to get confidence in the car.

“But it’s not all negative because the car was performing pretty well in high fuel, so I’m pretty happy with the feeling I have.”

Rookie did miss out on some running in Bahrain but at least has existing Haas experience

Photo by: Haas F1 Team

But perhaps one eye-opening difference to his predecessors the youngster showed in Bahrain was in revealing the bodywork issue Haas currently has that blighted his final session of testing (the VF-25’s engine cover is currently said to be very thin and it peeled back at speed that day) during the day three press conference.

It will be interesting to see if he becomes more guarded as the year progresses.

Nevertheless, Bearman’s early days at Haas are going very positively – even by the end of the Baku weekend last year the team was already pretty besotted with his enthusiastic character. Although what is said to be his considerable delectation for sweets might make quite a hole in the team’s catering budget – if Christian Horner’s excuses for Red Bull’s 2021 cost cap breach are to be believed…