Haas team boss Ayao Komatsu has recently acknowledged that Ferrari junior Oliver Bearman has made a more distinct impression on the American team than Charles Leclerc did during his runs with them. Before making his race debut in the 2018 Formula 1 season, Charles Leclerc participated in several first practice sessions with Haas during the 2016 F1 championship. The Monegasque driver later moved to Sauber for further practice outings the following year before securing a full-time seat.
Similarly, Oliver Bearman, who has been part of the Ferrari Driver Academy, has had multiple FP1 sessions with Haas and is set to compete full-time for the American team next year. Despite the parallels in their career trajectories, Ayao Komatsu has revealed that Oliver Bearman has left a different and more noticeable impression on the Haas squad compared to Charles Leclerc, who is now a prominent driver for Ferrari.
“It was a very long time ago so I don’t remember the details. But what I remember, the team was in a very different position as well. We are still a young team, but back then we were an even younger team. So the position of the team was different. The ability for us to be able to assess young drivers was different. But also the approach of Charles honestly, I don’t remember totally, very well, but I don’t know – maybe he was too conservative. I really cannot remember, I don’t want to say something wrong! But it is true that he didn’t give us the same impression. Different times, different challenges, I guess.”- the Japanese Formula One engineer and team principal pointed out.
Ferrari junior Oliver Bearman is the first confirmed rookie on the grid for the 2025 Formula 1 championship, though Haas has yet to announce who his teammate will be. Looking ahead to the British driver’s debut season, team principal Ayao Komatsu expressed confidence in the abilities of the Ferrari Driver Academy member. Ayao Komatsu emphasized that he is not concerned about the inevitable mistakes Bearman might make as he acclimates to the demands of Formula 1.
“I think you’ve got to look at the individual mistakes,” he said. “You can’t just call a mistake as one word. Every situation is different, you’ve got to judge with context. It might be a right mistake to make, it might be the wrong mistake. It really depends on context – where are you in the championship? Where are you on the grid? What phase of the race is it? Is this the place to take the risk? Is this the event to be conservative? But the thing is, what we’ve seen with Ollie, he understands the picture very well, he understands the context very well. So my expectation is if he was going to make a mistake, he would make a mistake in the right way, if you like.” – the Japanese team principal concluded.
