Oliver Bearman’s world would’ve turned upside down in the last 24 hours. After securing a stunning F2 pole position at Jeddah, the British racing sensation got a shock call-up that he would be making his F1 debut for Ferrari while Carlos Sainz recuperated from an appendicitis issue. With only 1 hour of running under his belt during the FP3 session earlier today, Bearman jumped into Qualifying for the very first time in his F1 career. What’s more, he almost outqualified Lewis Hamilton.
The #38 driver was en route to a Q3 appearance at his very first attempt. And he was on course to knock Hamilton out in the process. However, a small clip of the wall meant that he missed out on this historic achievement by mere milliseconds, 0.036 seconds to be precise.
Naturally, he wasn’t too pleased with himself. Formula1.com quoted him as saying, “At the moment, I’m not so proud – the racer in me knows the car was quick enough to be in Q3 but in a couple of days I’ll look back and be proud of my efforts.”
Ollie Bearman was only 0.036 seconds away from knocking Lewis Hamilton out on his qualifying debut pic.twitter.com/Xp89TBKoPj
— ESPN F1 (@ESPNF1) March 8, 2024
That being said, the team themselves have been very proud of the 18-year-old, who became Ferrari’s youngest-ever debutant. Despite his Q2 exit, the Scuderia has refrained from putting any undue pressure on the young racing ace as they aim to have him settled in properly for the Grand Prix on Saturday.
Fred Vasseur gives his vote of confidence to F1 rookie, Oliver Bearman
Oliver Bearman merely had three hours notice to process that he was going to set foot in the SF-24. What’s more, a high-speed street circuit, like the Jeddah Corniche track, requires the utmost confidence from a driver. Naturally, Vasseur wants to nurture the young driver and not break him with targets and pressure.
Vasseur explained, “There is always a difference between doing a very good job in the junior series and to do a job in F1. We don’t have to draw any conclusions now, we have to let him have time to do the job and I won’t put any pressure on him this weekend.”
At 18 years and 10 months old, Oliver Bearman becomes the first English driver to drive for Scuderia Ferrari in over 33 years.
The last one was Nigel Mansell in 1990. pic.twitter.com/VLI8KOjzFY
— Ferrari News (@FanaticsFerrari) March 8, 2024
Oliver Bearman would’ve started the F2 feature race from pole if not for Sainz’s illness. Despite this sudden development, the Briton has himself admitted that all he wants to do is ease into the weekend, and the race and try to bring in the best possible result for Ferrari, on his Grand Prix debut.
It won’t be a straightforward task for Bearman, given he has to do a full Grand Prix distance for the first time in F1 machinery. That too at a fast street circuit in Jeddah with walls too close for any margin of error. As Vasseur said post-qualifying, the aim for the 18-year-old would be to have a “clean race”.
