Oliver Bearman on track for Ferrari at Fiorano
The recent seventh-place finisher in the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix was behind the wheel of the 2022 Ferrari F1-75 this week in Italy.
Officially, we still don’t know who will be alongside Charles Leclerc at Ferrari to compete in the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne scheduled at the end of March. Carlos Sainz, who underwent an appendectomy during the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix weekend, had to withdraw from the race and was brilliantly replaced by Oliver Bearman, one of Scuderia’s three reserve drivers, along with Antonio Giovinazzi and Robert Shwartzman.
Starting 11th on the grid and finishing 7th, Bearman was the revelation of the Saudi weekend. Without making any mistakes on a circuit where any misstep comes with a cost, the youngest driver in history to start a Grand Prix behind the wheel of a Ferrari managed to hold off the advances of Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton behind him towards the end of the race.
The British driver has thus proven that he already has, despite his 18 years, all the qualities to one day become a full-time driver in F1. In case Sainz is not recovered for Melbourne, Bearman will, unless a big surprise happens, be back in the SF-24, especially since he will be present in Australia as the second event on the F2 calendar will take place at the antipodes.
As part of a testing program for the Scuderia, Bearman took the wheel of an F1 car at Fiorano, Ferrari’s official testing track. As per the regulations, he was only allowed to drive a single-seater dating back at least two seasons. The Chemsford native was therefore able to drive the SF-75 from 2002, which had enabled Ferrari to win four races and finish as runner-up in the constructors’ championship.
After driving the Haas VF-23 in free practice sessions last year and the SF-24 in Jeddah, the SF-75 is already the third Formula 1 car in which Bearman has driven in the premier category. An essential experience for the one that many see as replacing Nico Hülkenberg or Kevin Magnussen in the American team next season.
Couldn’t get enough of an @F1 car @OllieBearman? 😏 We’ve got Ollie testing the F1-75 in Fiorano today as part of our previous car testing programme pic.twitter.com/asmFA8EgIa
— Scuderia Ferrari (@ScuderiaFerrari) March 13, 2024
