Oliver Bearman became Haas’ first signing for the 2025 season, as he joins the Kannapolis-based outfit in a multi-year deal. He will become an F1 driver at just 19, making him one of the youngest ever, and his dream of getting there started a long time ago.
Bearman realized that he would become a professional driver when he got picked up by Ferrari. “I knew that it was in the realms of possibility when I joined the Ferrari driver academy,” he said on the High Performance podcast.
Driving in the F4 championship for two years without a team backing him made him feel lost. But Bearman won two titles, becoming the first driver to ever do so, and Ferrari took notice of this. After the Italian stable got him to Maranello in 2021, he got a “clear path to the top” in his head.
Oliver Bearman and Rafael Cȃmara join the Ferrari Driver Academy
➡️ https://t.co/C1HDn6VVaX#FDA pic.twitter.com/kzORjLm3F9— Scuderia Ferrari Driver Academy (@insideFDA) November 8, 2021
Bearman’s dream of becoming an F1 driver became a goal, with backing from F1’s most successful team of all time.
He competed in F3 the next year, and Ferrari took it upon itself to train Bearman, and get him ready for a bright future. His association with the Italian team got him a lot of exposure as well. He would be a part of the team’s crew in several of their F1 races in different venues around the world.
How Ferrari helped Bearman get his F1 debut
Bearman finished third in the 2022 F3 season, which was good enough for Prema to sign him in F2 for the next campaign. With F2 being F1’s primary support series, Ferrari paid an even closer attention to the Briton. They deemed him good enough to fill in for an F1 seat if the time ever came. And it did come.
At the 2024 Saudi Arabian GP, Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz had to undergo an emergency appendectomy, and Berman was asked to step up. He had to deal with nerves. But with help from Charles Leclerc and the team, he managed a brilliant P7 on debut, making him a favorite to land a 2025 seat.
Helmut Marko spoke about how it would be difficult for Bearman to get a Ferrari seat in the near future, with Lewis Hamilton joining Leclerc in Maranello from 2025 onwards. The Austrian suggested that Bearman go to a team to polish his skills for a future Ferrari move and he did just that by signing with Haas.
