Oliver Bearman has received high praise from the Head of Ferrari’s Driver Academy following his F1 debut at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, with the teenager predicted to get “better and better” after impressing on his rookie weekend.
Bearman received a last-minute call-up to step in at Ferrari ahead of Friday’s Free Practice 3 session in Jeddah, following the news that Carlos Sainz had been diagnosed with appendicitis. The 18-year-old went on to deliver an eye-catching performance, qualifying 11th on the grid before scoring points on debut by finishing the race in P7.
Clear – who heads up the Driver Academy for Ferrari and has worked with many famous names in the sport during his years as a race engineer – told the F1 Nation podcast that Bearman’s performance surpassed his expectations.
“I couldn’t have hoped for a better weekend for Ollie,” he said. “If you’d written the script, you would have balked a bit at the final result because if you brought him to a Grand Prix and said two weeks ago, ‘you’re going to do the Grand Prix in Saudi’, mentally he gets prepared for it.
“We can do some things, we can practice some starts, but when you drop him in on Friday morning, one free practice session and then you’re into qualifying against the big boys, that’s ominous. That’s very, very intimidating for anybody.
