British Formula 1 fans have another reason to get excited about the 2025 Formula 1 season with Oliver Bearman making his full debut in the sport with Haas.
Oliver Bearman will be a name familiar to F1 fans after his heroic cameo for Ferrari at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
The Brit became the youngest driver to race for Ferrari when he was called up to race in place of Carlos Sainz who required emergency appendix surgery.
Bearman impressed everyone in the paddock with his performance in Saudi Arabia, finishing ahead of Lewis Hamilton and Lando Norris to score six crucial points for Ferrari.
It wasn’t the last time Bearman was seen on the F1 grid, as he stepped into Kevin Magnussen’s Haas in Azerbaijan and Brazil to deputise for the Dane.
Haas – who have completed 190 races in their F1 history – decided to sign Bearman on a permanent deal to race alongside Esteban Ocon in 2025.
Journalist Scott Mitchell-Malm was speaking about Bearman on The Race F1 Podcast and explained how he’s seen within Haas and Ferrari ahead of the upcoming campaign.
Haas believe Oliver Bearman is ‘the real deal’ ahead of the 2025 F1 season
Talking about the 19-year-old, Mitchell-Malm said: “I think Bearman is a driver with clearly very high potential.
“I struggle a little bit with Bearman on whether or not he’s one of those stunning young drivers in the making, so your Charles Leclerc type, for example, or even the 2019 crop.
“I feel like he’s somewhere in that George Russell, Lando Norris, Alex Albon kind of range, but, it’s not a wide spectrum of talent, but it’s a little bit wider than all of them are definitely at the same level.
“And certainly in terms of their reputation coming into Formula 1 and sort of how they looked in that first year.
READ MORE: Who is 2025 Haas driver Oliver Bearman? Everything to know
“So Bearman’s sort of somewhere around there. He’s certainly at the upper end of it.
“There’s a feeling within Haas and to a slightly lesser extent Ferrari, but I only say that because it’s not Ferrari that we’ve heard the most from about Bearman from an F1 point of view.
“There’s a feeling within Haas that Bearman’s the real deal in terms of the one-lap pace is fantastic. But his methodology, [and] his process is very, very good. His ability to take on information is very good and then process that and turn it into progress.
“He’s very efficient on that side of things, he’s very self-critical.”
Could Oliver Bearman be Lewis Hamilton’s successor at Ferrari one day?
Bearman is on loan from Ferrari to Haas for at least the next two seasons which will serve as perfect preparation for the rest of his Formula 1 career.
It just so happens that Hamilton’s basic Ferrari contract runs for the same length, although there is an option to extend for another year which both he and the team will be keen to activate if their 2026 car is as competitive as they would like it to be.
However, Hamilton can’t go on forever and out of all the drivers connected to Ferrari, Bearman is the first in line to take his place.
READ MORE: All to know about Haas F1 Team from team principal to Ferrari and Toyota ties
Bearman is following a similar career trajectory to Leclerc by joining a Ferrari-connected team elsewhere in the paddock first, rather than jumping straight into one of their cars.
Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu has been astounded by Bearman’s ability but will hope that his difficult 2024 F2 campaign isn’t a sign of things to come.
His three outings in Formula 1 last year suggest that he’s more than ready to make the permanent step up this year.
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