Ferrari and Ollie Bearman: why ramifications of brave decision are not just about sporting side of F1

Scuderia Ferrari snatches a podium finish at the Jeddah circuit, with Charles Leclerc in third place behind the Red Bull duo of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez. However, in the coming years, the 2024 Formula 1 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix will be remembered for the debut of a talent destined to become a great driver. Only “father time” will certify what today, emotionally, seems to be a hopeful scenario for the eighteen-year-old English driver. Carlos Sainz was forced to miss out on the race weekend due to appendicitis, with the Spaniard promptly operated on-site, a situation which catapulted a semi-unknown teenager to the public eye. And the Ferrari Driver Academy member took advantage of his massive opportunity to immediately make headlines.

Raise your hand if you didn’t think for a moment that entrusting the SF-24 car to Oliver Bearman was too big a risk, especially on a track where even the most experienced drivers pay dearly for small mistakes. And yet, this talented teenager called in a hurry on Friday morning to replace the Spanish driver surprised everyone. Just one free practice session to try to understand the procedures of Formula 1 cars and feel what it meant to complete a lap of the Jeddah circuit, with a lap time 12 seconds faster than the pole position which he set the day before in the Formula 2 Championship for Prema Racing.

Ferrari, Oliver Bearman: a “sponge” capable of quickly implementing all instructions

Watching the on-board footage of the British driver, what impresses is the ability to put into practice the instructions received from his Ferrari race engineer, Riccardo Adami, with the precision of a veteran. Over the course of the 50 laps of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, he made no mistakes, showing a composure that allowed him to complete several overtakes without any lock-ups or misjudgments, as happened, for example, to the more experienced Oscar Piastri, who couldn’t get the better of Lewis Hamilton. All this on a pseudo-street circuit where you brush against walls at crazy speeds.

Probably the latest generation of drivers is mentally more ready to receive many inputs and implement them naturally. Certainly, Oliver Bearman is an exceptional driver who does credit to the work of the Ferrari Driver Academy. The fact that the lineup of the Maranello team consisted of drivers nurtured in their own Young Academy should be a source of pride for the Ferrari management, but also for the Tifosi. A powerful yet sad image was the brief shot of Mick Schumacher, another product of the red academy, looking understandably upset in the Mercedes garage.

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Ferrari: the merits of the SF-24 in Oliver Bearman’s remarkable achievement

The merits of Ferrari’s gamble are enormous; however, what Oliver Bearman showcased was complemented by a stable car that clearly gives confidence to the drivers. Ollie’s astonishing performance demonstrates that the SF-24 is a car with predictable behavior that doesn’t require a very long learning curve to extract its potential. The Briton was fantastic, but he would hardly have been able to perform as well with the SF-23, which experienced drivers struggled to tame in many circumstances.

From this perspective, Oliver Bearman’s seventh-place finish in the race is effectively the certification of the good work done by the Maranello engineers. The Italian car was able to make a driver who had never raced in Formula 1 feel comfortable, managing to complete 50 laps with an increasing pace. Yes, because the young English driver, despite physical and mental fatigue, allowed himself the luxury of setting the fastest lap of the race on the last lap, resisting the pressure from compatriots Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton ahead at the finish line in Saudi Arabia.

Formula One needs freshness. Oliver Bearman’s achievement is a beautiful story of a talented, young driver and a worried father in the Ferrari pits, in a Formula 1 series shaken by sordid affairs that seem never-ending. It took an unforeseen event and Frederic Vasseur’s gamble for the paddock not to exclusively discuss the internal war at Red Bull, the accusations leveled at Mohammed Ben Sulayem, in short, the dark side of the sport that is increasingly alienating fans from a series which is losing its credibility.

Fans of the premier motorsport category have shown in recent years that they can accept the technical dominance of a competitor, but currently, they are weary of power plays and the sort of scandals that now makes more news than the purely sporting aspect of the category. For this reason too, thank you Ferrari, and above all, thank you Oliver!

Oliver Bearman, Ferrari