How Bearman's F1 debut will help Mercedes on its Hamilton replacement call

An average speed of 155mph, around 27 corners, all lined with walls. All told, the Jeddah Corniche circuit is “super hard to jump in on”, per triple Formula 1 world champion Max Verstappen. Let alone with no testing in a new car, run by the championship’s most storied squad. That’s exactly the situation in which 18-year-old British Formula 2 star Oliver Bearman shone last weekend in Saudi Arabia.

He'd been called up by Ferrari after what was originally thought to be food poisoning suffered by regular driver Carlos Sainz turned out to be appendicitis and the Spaniard required surgery. Just two hours before FP3 for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, while he was on his way into the track to line up 10th for Prema Racing having topped F2 qualifying the previous day, Ferrari Academy driver Bearman got the call: Sainz’s SF-24 was his to hustle.

“I honestly didn't have time to get nervous or to overthink it because it was so late that I literally had to focus straightaway on trying to get up to speed and catch up the lost time,” he said after qualifying 11th.

Slight errors at Turns 9, 10 and 29 would cost him a Q3 berth on a day where he’d barely seen his temporary team-mate Charles Leclerc. This was because he’d had “so much to understand in order to be ready” with Ferrari’s engineers, according to the Monegasque.

The next day, Bearman became the youngest-ever British F1 racer. And Ferrari’s to boot. In the initial stages, he held station, then passed Yuki Tsunoda, Zhou Guanyu and Nico Hulkenberg after the early safety car period – during which he’d followed Leclerc into the pits and so avoided the losses later accrued by compatriots Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton in staying out. In the middle phase of the race, he ran solo a chunk behind George Russell, before the leading McLaren and Mercedes cars finally came in and fitted softs, coming out directly behind. Ferrari informed Bearman of his final test to stay seventh, with Norris and Hamilton well briefed on who they were chasing. But the 6.3-second gap Norris had to the Ferrari debutante once back on track with soft tyres was only eroded to 3.0s by the flag.

Bearman's surprise F1 debut has given Ferrari a useful measuring stick when weighing up 2025 moves for its junior

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

“The car was flying today so that is obviously a big bonus,” he said afterwards. “But I think we executed a clean race, no mistakes, and that is exactly what we were looking for. So, I’m happy with my performance. That was my goal, to do a great showing this weekend. I think I did a decent job, so that is alright. That is all I can do – keep pushing in F2 and cross my fingers [of an F1 promotion].”

PLUS: Saudi Arabian Grand Prix Driver Ratings

Ferrari team boss Fred Vasseur said Bearman’s overall performance had been a “mega weekend”. But given Ferrari has Leclerc tied up for the foreseeable and Hamilton arriving next year, it was at other squads where Bearman’s brilliant showing might have more impact.

It was at Mercedes where additional interest in Bearman cropped up. Autosport understands that the team considered Ferrari’s situation last weekend to be a win-win

First up there’s Haas, where he will complete six FP1 outings (Imola, Barcelona, Silverstone, Budapest, Mexico and Abu Dhabi) in what were already expected to be assessments for a possible 2025 race drive given how well Bearman impressed the team in two practice outings in 2023. New team principal Ayao Komatsu, who was effusive about the teenager’s faultless FP1 appearance in Mexico last year, said it would be "very unfair" to consider Bearman a shoo-in for the American squad given the Jeddah point-scoring performances of Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen. But this was just race two of a long season.

Elsewhere, it was at Mercedes where additional interest in Bearman cropped up. Autosport understands that the team considered Ferrari’s situation last weekend to be a win-win. That Bearman naturally wouldn’t be able to replicate Sainz’s point-scoring potential in the constructors’ fight behind Red Bull, and that it could rank his showings against what it might get from a rapid promotion to replace Hamilton for his Prema team-mate Andrea Kimi Antonelli in 2025.

Antonelli has a 12-point lead over the scoreless Bearman after four F2 races, which is where attention for their respective potential F1 futures now rests, while Sauber junior Zane Maloney leads overall on 47 points. But that’s if Sainz doesn’t have an Alex Albon-like rapid appendicitis recovery ahead of the following F1/F2 round in Australia next week…

Even if Sainz recovers for Australia, many suspect it isn't the last time Bearman will race in F1

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images