Gunther Steiner reflects on Ollie Bearman’s F1 seat and pinpoints “great challenge” for 2025. Former Haas team principal Gunther Steiner is convinced that Ollie Bearman is ready for F1.

Finally in F1
Oliver Bearman in Haas for the 2025 season was news that seemed ready to be made official for a couple of weeks, and it was finally announced by the American team on the eve of the British Grand Prix weekend. An event in which the English Ferrari-trained driver participated, driving the Haas in FP1 only, before returning to Prema to complete the rest of the weekend with Prema in Formula 2.

Gunther Steiner’s praise
Ollie Bearman’s future is now set, and several comments have been made about the qualities of the 19-year-old, who had already impressed at the beginning of the season in Saudi Arabia by finishing 7th in his debut with Ferrari. One of these comments came directly from Günther Steiner, who was Haas’s Team Principal until last year before the arrival of Ayao Komatsu.

“I think he’ll be good, but how good, of course, remains to be seen,” he told the media present at Silverstone. “The last two rookies who did very well were Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri in McLaren. They chose well, but you never know in advance how well rookies will do once they enter Formula 1. Ollie has already done some Free Practice sessions last year, he’s a very mature person and a very nice guy. I think he’s ready for Formula 1.”

Attention to future challenges
For the Italian manager, Oliver Bearman has all the qualities to do well in his new F1 adventure, even if the question mark remains whether he can deliver convincing performances consistently: “He did very well in his debut with Ferrari, but it’s one thing to be in a great car and finish seventh, another to be in a midfield car and try to score points. It will be a tougher fight,” he continued. “The most important thing is that he didn’t make mistakes in his debut; he was very calm and careful, just like in last year’s FP1. I spoke to him and told him the worst thing he can do is go out and cause an accident because everyone will remember it. The question is whether he can still find that last five percent in the Haas car. We will only know when he is in the car.” – the former Haas team boss concluded.