Bearman working with sports psychologist at Ferrari ahead of rookie FIA F3 season

The Briton, who joins Prema Racing for the 2022 season, won the ADAC and Italian F4 Championships last year after a “really good” season.

In only his second year racing cars, Bearman notched up a total of 17 wins and 13 poles.

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But the 16-year-old says there’s “always a few hardships” and with “a bit of mental training you can overcome that.”

It is one of the resources he’s been able to access since joining the Ferrari Formula 1 team’s academy in November, and recently moved to Italy to be closer to both them and Prema Racing, who are based in the north of the country.

“Obviously, in any championship in any season, there's always a few hardships that you need to overcome," Bearman said in an exclusive interview with Autosport.

"And I think, last year, a few things that I, you know, that my head came down a bit and lose a bit of the motivation and the determination, and then it's kind of a downward spiral, you know, so, stuff like that.

“I'm just trying to mature and make sure that you can notice it and make sure it doesn't happen, because you know, when things go bad, it's easy to roll with it, but really to be active and turn it around, especially with the weekends we have, we've only got one free practice session, qualifying and two races.

“It’s over quite quickly, so if something goes wrong, then it's easy for it to screw the whole weekend up. I think a bit of mental training and you can overcome that.”

Oliver Bearman, Winner of the F4 Italian Championship Certified by FIA and Winner of the ADAC F4 German Championship

Photo by: FIA

The Aston Martin Autosport BRDC Young Driver of the Year Award finalist also competed in the Formula Regional Asian Championship over the winter alongside team-mate Arthur Leclerc, who took the title.

The Monegasque driver, who will race his second season of F3 this year, is also a member of the FDA.

The pair will be joined at Prema by Jak Crawford, who raced for Hitech Grand Prix in F3 last year, finishing 13th and scoring one podium.

Bearman added: “At Ferrari, we've got a lot of resources, one of them being a mental coach.

"So I worked with a mental trainer over the winter in Maranello, and it has been quite helpful just to kind of look at everything.

“It’s tough to really see gains in your mental state - you go to the gym, and you can see yourself getting stronger, but you can't see your brain getting stronger.

"You have to really wait until the time comes where you struggle and then you're just making sure that these things don't go wrong.

“You can't really tell until that happens, but we've worked hard at it, so I think should it happen. I think I have the resources and the provisions to overcome it.”

Several F1 drivers have previously spoken of the importance of sports psychologists, with George Russell saying they helped him become “stronger than ever.”

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/how-formula-1-teams-look-after-their-mental-health/6684180/

F3’s opening round of the nine-round season takes place this weekend in Bahrain.