Ferrari Driver Academy star Ollie Bearman has, as expected, confirmed that he’ll be in Formula 2 next year, rather than progress to Formula 1.
The 18-year-old recently made his F1 debut at the Mexican Grand Prix, where he completed Free Practice 1 for Haas instead of Kevin Magnussen.
Haas fielded Bearman as part of the mandatory requirement for each team to use a rookie in two FP1 sessions.
He did extremely well in the session and set the 15th quickest time, ahead of two-time World Champion Fernando Alonso.
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Of the five rookies who were fielded in FP1 as part of the mandatory requirement, Bearman was the fastest by almost seven-tenths of a second, highlighting his talent.
What’s even more remarkable is that he was just over three-tenths slower than Nico Hulkenberg and just over a tenth slower than F1’s only full-time rookie this season Logan Sargeant.
Sargeant’s seat is currently the only one yet to be confirmed for 2024; however, the expectation is that Williams will give the American a second season.
As for Bearman, his best chance at making the jump to the F1 grid will come in 2025, as there are currently two seats available at Ferrari and two available at Haas, who are a customer team of the Americans.
Two seats are also available at Sauber, although it’s pondered whether Audi will start to take some control over their driver line-up for 2025 ahead of their arrival in 2026.
Ferrari are clearly very fond of Bearman and view him incredibly highly, given that he was given the FP1 opportunity.
Bearman is planning on racing in F2 next year in what’ll be his second campaign in the feeder series, ahead of hopefully making the step into F1 the following year.
He’s fully focused on winning the F2 championship in 2024, something which’ll make him a favourable option for any F1 team in 2025.
Despite 2023 being his rookie F2 campaign, the Briton is already a four-time F2 race winner for Prema and sits sixth in the Drivers’ Championship ahead of the season finale in Abu Dhabi.
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He’ll be hoping to add to his win tally next season and reach his “clear” goal.
“I won’t be in F1 next year, I will be in F2 again, it’s quite sure,” Bearman said to Sky Sports. “And the goal is clear, second year in F2, I have to win it.
“Hopefully, I can do enough job to finish in this paddock one day. F1 is the next step but it’s a bit more difficult than the previous ones.”