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For Baku, Oliver Bearman makes the switch from F2 to F1 again, this time in a Haas not a Ferrari.
Azerbaijan will mark the second time that F2 PREMA driver, Oliver Bearman moves up to F1 for a race weekend. Back in Saudi Arabia the, at the time 18-year-old, filled in for Carlos Sainz at Ferrari after he had appendicitis. Finishing the race in 7th after stepping in for just one free practice session and straight into qualifying was an impressive feat. Something that put him in the view for the Haas seat he now has for 2025. This time he replaces Haas driver Kevin Magnussen, who received a race ban after reaching 12 penalty points in Monza.
Baku’s appearance is under very different circumstances. Firstly, Bearman will be driving a Haas instead of a Ferrari so the general expectations are very different than in Jeddah. Bearman was aided in his debut by being in a top-three car. This weekend he finds himself in a lower-midfield car. This presents different challenges in terms of not just the car’s capabilities but how easy the VF-24 handles.
Fortunately for the Brit, he’ll have far more preparation for the weekend. He has three practice sessions before qualifying and is with a team where he’s done FP1 sessions and test driving.
More preparation
Bearman also recognised that he feels physically more prepared for Baku due to the fact he has a confirmed F1 seat for 2025. In the F1 press conference, he said:
“Knowing that I’m going to race is a big help, also the fact that I’m going to do FP1 and FP2 that’s going to help me a lot to build it up. You know another street track I’ll have time to build it up not to have to take any risk. Of course I’ve been training hard but I’ve been doing that anyway because I’m racing next year.”
Baku has been known to be a tricky track, with its narrow streets being a common danger zone for drivers. Bearman has an impressive track record around Baku, he won the Sprint and Feature race in F2 last year. Significantly he completed the first-ever clean sweep in F2 history. With Fred Vasseur greeting him under the podium, no doubt it was one of the moments that led to Bearman being where he is now.
However, despite an arguably perfect weekend in his rookie F2 season Bearman was quick to talk about issues he faced and how he wants to improve on that.
He admitted, “I got a lot of confidence at this track last year. From the outside it was a very clean weekend, on the inside I hit the wall every single session.” He also set his expectations for the weekend when he said, “I’m going to try to turn that down a little bit and just have a clean weekend and enjoy it as well.”
The race ban
Bearman has been aware that this jump to F1 would be likely as Kevin Magnussen had been on 10 penalty points since fairly early in the season. Although he’s been preparing for F1 anyway he has been factoring in an early call-up.
He acknowledged, “I knew it was a possibility to jump in the car at any point. If I could’ve chosen, it would’ve been one that doesn’t clash with F2. But you know, you can’t choose when to jump into F1 and every opportunity is one that you take.”
Bearman sees Baku as a chance to show his progress in the past months. He was happy to call it an “opportunity to show I’ve improved and what I can do.” With his performance in F2 last year, there will no doubt be expectations, but with a confirmed seat there is less pressure than he had in Jeddah.
Feature Image credit: by Simon Galloway / LAT Images