Bearman set for future FP1s with Ferrari after impressing on race debut

Ollie Bearman is scheduled to make FP1 appearances for Ferrari as well as Haas later this season, following his impressive debut at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

The Ferrari reserve driver was required to stand in for the unwell Carlos Sainz, who underwent surgery on Friday morning after being diagnosed with appendicitis, and finished seventh after qualifying 11th. Team principal Fred Vasseur says the strong performance from Bearman needs to be seen as a further step in his development towards a full-time drive in future, and reveals he’ll complete Ferrari’s FP1 sessions later this year on top of six outings for Haas.

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“I think in this situation we had good young drivers a couple of times, not only at Ferrari but on the grid, and I would say the pace… I don’t want to say it’s easy to have, but it’s something they can achieve,” Vasseur said. “The fact he did a short weekend without FP1, FP2, without any mistakes, for me it’s unrealistic. Honestly, I was completely impressed by this.

“In Jeddah, between the walls, skipping FP1, FP2, going almost directly into qualifying. In Q2 on the first lap he was doing a good lap, he had the red flag, he made a mistake in the second one, he started the last lap in the qualifying with nothing on the board and he was three hundredths behind Lewis [Hamilton]. With a clean Q2 I think he’d be able to get to Q3.

“But again in Jeddah you have to consider it as a step, not the final target. He did well this weekend, he will have other challenges in front of him in the future with F2, he will do a couple of FP1s with us and Haas in the season.

“We know all of you, and including me, that in six months’ time we won’t speak about Jeddah, we’ll speak about Mexico or Brazil if he’s doing well. And we know every single day will be a new challenge, but we know if he continues with the same approach (as Jeddah) he will do well.”

While the FP1 appearances will likely have been mapped out long before Bearman’s opportunity in Jeddah, Vasseur says the way the 18-year-old handled the race gave the team principal himself confidence to push his driver late on as Hamilton and Lando Norris chased him down.

“I think as everybody has said it’s a mega weekend from Ollie. You know the story, we called him – it was something like 2pm on Friday I think – to jump into the car for FP3. It’s not Barcelona, we are in Jeddah, the challenge was mega and he had a very good FP3, he was going step by step, and then in qualifying he missed Q3 by a couple of hundredths and thousands.

“The race I was a bit nervous as you have so many things to manage in F1 with the starting procedure, with the pit stop, the steering wheel and so on, it was not an easy one and at the end of the day it went very well.

“In the end he managed very well, if you have a look he was even able to push in the last lap to keep Lando and Lewis behind him, and I was even surprised myself to push a little bit more from the pit wall and not be conservative as he was not making any mistakes at this stage.”