Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur has confirmed that in the upcoming year, Ferrari junior Oliver Bearman will expand his participation in Formula 1 free practice sessions while continuing with another season in Formula 2.
The news broke last week, confirming that Oliver Bearman will be making his Formula 1 debut later this month during a Friday practice session with the Haas team in the Mexico City Grand Prix at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez. Additionally, he will be taking the wheel of the VF-23 in the opening practice session in Abu Dhabi, the last round of the 2023 Formula 1 championship, ensuring Haas fulfills its requirement to provide a rookie driver with two FP1 opportunities during the year. In preparation for these appearances, Oliver Bearman seized the opportunity to pilot an F1 car for the first time in his career when he tested Ferrari’s SF21 at Fiorano, the Maranello team’s official racing test track.
Oliver Bearman, a British driver who has been part of Ferrari’s Driver Academy since late 2021, is presently taking part in the Formula 2 series, where he holds the sixth position in the standings with four victories to his name.
The Ferrari boss has now announced that the Ferrari Driver Academy member will return for another Formula 2 season in 2024, accompanied by additional Formula 1 practice sessions to further equip him for a potential step up in 2025.
When asked to provide insight into Bearman’s racing schedule for the upcoming year, the French manager stated: “[In] 2024 he will do F2 again. But you know the situation, that we already had the discussion – I think it was the last press conference – about the junior series and the general programme is that the step is quite high with the F1, because we have no testing anymore, we have more and more Sprint event with just one FP1. We have three tests during the winter, it means that it’s quite difficult to adapt to the F1 and the rookies not always successful. I think Oscar [Piastri] did a very good job also because he had one year of preparation last year and he was already used to the F1. And we have to prepare in advance and it’s why we give him two FP1s this season with us and probably much more next year and we will prepare him for the future. So far, he’s doing a very good job in the junior series, but we know that it’s [F1] a long way [away].” – Fred Vasseur explained.
The French manager’s reference to the limited testing opportunities available for rookie Formula 1 drivers came in response to remarks made by Logan Sargeant, who had recently spoken up about the challenges he faced during his challenging debut season:
“Experience always helps, but I have people to talk to just try and understand how to approach things and why these little mistakes are happening and how to get rid of them,” Sargeant said in Qatar. It is a constant work-in-progress, and I don’t think anyone is perfect in that sense – it is just about building off the mistakes, and it might sound silly, but using them to your advantage to try and learn from it. Ideally, you’d have more testing, as that is the best way to prepare – I mean back in the day when Lewis [Hamilton] and Fernando [Alonso] joined, everyone back then got endless days of testing, and in the current car too which is very different to what we experience now. Now, it is always a previous generation and that makes a difference, but even if it is the previous generation [of car used in testing], just having more days [overall] makes a difference.”
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