Oliver Bearman is proud of his F1 debut after he finished seventh in a “physically demanding” 2024 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
Bearman initially began the weekend racing in F2 where he finished fourth in Practice then put his PREMA car on pole position for the Feature Race.
The 18 year-old Chelmsford-born driver was delighted to enjoy a “Great Qualifying,” as he felt that PREMA were “back to where we belong” after a “tough” opening round in Bahrain, which left him “really really happy” ahead of the races with renewed confidence.
Bearman however was withdrawn from his F2 duties just three hours before the Sprint Race and promoted straight into the F1 event with Ferrari, after Carlos Sainz withdrew due to appendicitis surgery yet the Brit adapted brilliantly to his sudden change of car and category as he finished tenth in FP3.
Qualifying however proved “messy” yet Bearman missed out on Q3 by only 0.036 seconds to fellow Brit and seven-time champion, Lewis Hamilton, as he qualified 11th in an impressive debut Qualifying session despite having had just one hour of FP3 to adapt to his new environment beforehand.
Acknowledging that he didn’t have “the ideal way of making my F1 debut…”, Bearman felt that he “would have liked to have come to quali with more than the 22 laps I did in FP3. But I can still be happy with today, even if Q2 was a bit messy.
“It was so close, but I made a mistake on my first push lap, so I had to do a second one and by then the tyres were no longer at their best.”
With Ferrari looking to have had the second-fastest car in Jeddah, hopes were high of a “nice” top-ten finish on debut for Bearman but the rookie iterated that he “can’t expect too much.”
Ferrari Team Principal, Frederic Vasseur meanwhile was “pleased” by Bearman’s performance which he considered “pretty impressive” given how “very difficult” the Jeddah Corniche Circuit is for any driver, let alone a F1 rookie despite Bearman having drove at the circuit in F2 last season and at the start of the weekend.
Vasseur added that FP3 was about race preparation as he explained: “Even though he had so many things to manage he was not particularly nervous and it was an unforgettable experience for him. In FP3 we focused on doing pit stops and also worked on the starts, two aspects that will be important for him tomorrow.”
Bearman’s cautious expectations looked optimistic after he held position at the start but lost one position during the safety car period after he pitted on Lap 8 following Lance Stroll’s crash, to swap from soft to hard tyres.
Bearman however kept calm and delivered a mature drive to seventh during which he passed Yuki Tsunoda, Guanyu Zhou then Nico Hulkenberg on track – of which he described the German as “slow” over team radio, before benefitting from pit stops for Lewis Hamilton and Lando Norris to finish seventh.
His seventh-placed finish meant that he was the first British rookie to score points on debut since Paul Di Resta in 2011, as well as the youngest Ferrari driver to finish a F1 race, having also become the first driver to make his F1 bow with the Scuderia since Arturo Merzario in 1972.
Bearman however found the race a tough challenge especially when under pressure from Norris and Hamilton as he explained: “It was physically demanding, especially in the end when I had Lando (Norris) and Lewis (Hamilton) behind me on Softs. I had to push flat out to maintain the gap and had to stay really focused, always checking my mirrors.”
The Brit was also humble in his unexpected F1 outing as he added: “I’m confident that I maximised everything today and had great fun out there. I’ll never forget this weekend. Thank you to the whole team for their support and for giving me the chance to race.”
Vasseur didn’t hold “any specific expectations” for Bearman in terms of the race given the short-notice circumstances surrounding him securing the drive for the race, but praised him for his attitude especially at the end when under pressure from experienced compatriots.
“As for Ollie, I didn’t have any specific expectations given the circumstance that led to him being in the car. And yet, he managed these two days amazingly well, almost like a veteran. There were no problems with his start or at the pit stop, things that were all new to him.
“He was always calm and precise with his feedback over the radio and gradually his confidence in the car grew so that towards the end he managed to keep two great drivers, Lando (Norris) and Lewis (Hamilton) behind him.”
Sainz meanwhile watched Bearman’s race unfold from the Ferrari garage with view to return in Australia, but Vasseur has iterated that this experience demonstrates that Ferrari has a reserve driver in Bearman “who is very much up to the task.”
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