Ferrari junior Ollie Bearman makes history in Baku, but feels P10 “not fully deserved”. Ferrari junior Ollie Bearman made history in Baku.

Another point for ‘Ollie’
Two races in Formula 1 with two different teams and two finishes in the points. The streak of positive results continues for Ferrari junior Oliver Bearman in his brief experience in the Circus, as he awaits the highly anticipated and definitive step up to official driver next season with Haas. The English driver finished 10th in the most recent Azerbaijan GP after securing seventh place in his debut with Ferrari in Saudi Arabia.

10th in extremis
The Englishman, who had a difficult start to the Azerbaijan weekend with a crash in FP3, seemed set to end the weekend outside the points despite starting from 10th place. Although he maintained his top-10 position at the start, the American team subsequently orchestrated a position swap with Hülkenberg, pushing Oliver Bearman out of the points. However, in the final stages of the race, the collision between Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari and Sergio Perez’s Red Bull proved crucial for the standings: the German was slowed down by some debris from the cars, allowing Oliver Bearman to regain 10th place just before the Virtual Safety Car.

Helped by luck
Thus, aided by some luck, the Briton brought home a point on the weekend when he had been promoted by the American team to replace the suspended Kevin Magnussen: “I didn’t have the chance to finish in the points, but there was a bit of bad luck ahead of me that allowed me to do so,” Oliver Bearman admitted. “I lacked pace in the first stint and lost some positions, which cost me some time in the race because I encountered traffic and lost time. In the second stint, I’m fairly satisfied with the performance. It’s tough when you’re trying to overtake; you have to push the tires a lot, and they overheat. I pushed hard to pass Colapinto, and in the end, Lewis passed me, using his experience to his advantage.” – the Ferrari junior pointed out.

Running in P12 until the incident between Sergio Perez and Carlos Sainz in the final stages of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Oliver Bearman said that his point was “maybe not fully deserved” but, combined with his seventh-place finish for the Maranello team in the Jeddah Arabian Grand Prix, he now sits 16th in the drivers’ standings with seven points.