Ferrari adds Bearman to F1 reserve roster for 2024

Despite having left the Ferrari Driver Academy progamme, Arthur Leclerc will be a Maranello development driver, and the younger brother of race driver Charles will have his first taste of F1 power when he drives the 2022 F1-75 model in Barcelona next week.

This year’s 24-race schedule has encouraged Ferrari to have extra options in the F1 reserve role. Giovinazzi and Shwartzman are both involved in the marque’s World Endurance Championship Hypercar programme, and thus will not necessarily always available to be on standby at races.

Bearman will be competing in his second season of F2 with the Prema team this year, and will be on site at F1 weekends which overlap with his racing programme, as well as being available to travel to non-clashing events with the team.

Last year the 18-year-old tested at Fiorano in an SF-21, then drove for Haas in FP1 in Mexico and Abu Dhabi, as well as in the young driver test at the latter venue.

The youngster did enough to encourage Ferrari to add him to the reserve roster, and he remains eligible to undertake further FP1 sessions this year with either Ferrari or Haas, as does Shwartzman.

The 23-year-old Leclerc joins Ferrari veterans Davide Rigon and Antonio Fuoco in the development driver role, which the team says “entails mainly working in the simulator, on car development, set-up work and updates introduced during the season”.

He will combine the role with an Italian GT programme with Scuderia Baldini 27.

Photo by: Ferrari

Arthur Leclerc, Ollie Bearman, Ferrari

Ferrari will kick start its 2024 track programme next week with a three-day Pirelli tyre test in Barcelona that runs from 29-31 January, featuring race drivers Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz in last year’s SF-23 on the first two days.

The team is also running the 2022 SF-75 in parallel, with the younger Leclerc driving it the first day, his brother and Sainz combining it with their SF-23 running on the second day, and Bearman then alone on the track with it for the final day of running.

Ferrari will launch its 2024 car in Maranello on 13 February.