British driver set to be given SURPRISE F1 drive

The Bahrain GP kicks off the eagerly-awaited 2023 F1 season — Photo: © LAT Images

British driver set to be given SURPRISE F1 drive

An FP1 session in Austin has been offered to the future Ferrari potential

L.A. Wilshaw

Friday 18 August 2023 07:42

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The Formula 1 feeder series conveyer belt continues to roll out fresh new talent, this time in the form of British racing driver Ollie Bearman.

Bearman has been one to watch since joining the PREMA team in 2022, finishing his F3 championship in third place.

Jumping straight from his rookie F3 season into Formula 2 in 2023, Bearman has already grabbed the headlines following his notable race sessions in Baku.

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His astonishing weekend began with him being quickest in practice. During the qualifying session he made contact with the wall and broke his steering column whilst navigating the tricky street circuit.

Bearman continued to drive the legs off his PREMA car and for good measure popped it into pole position, obliterating the opposition. Onboard footage shows his steering wheel clearly off-centre, yet he brought the car home; his maiden pole was nothing short of heroic.

"I'm really happy to start from pole for the feature race," he said after the session. "In the end, I was not expecting it because I had a bit of damage to the car. I was actually ready to pit at the end of my first lap and I got pole in the second one."

From P9 on the reverse grid the Ferrari Driver Academy member won the Sprint Race and after winning Sunday’s Feature, he was just one fastest lap short of world domination.

Ferrari Driver Academy's Ollie Bearman winning the feature race in Baku

PREMA are one of the most successful support series teams winning multiple drivers’ and teams’ championships with the likes of Oscar Piastri and Charles Leclerc.

Ferrari Academy driver joins the big leagues

If Bearman continues to impress the way he has done all season, the Essex boy looks set to be following in their footsteps. His first shot to join the big leagues is rumoured to be with Haas in the FP1 session, at the United States Grand Prix in Austin.

GrandPrix.com report that Bearman’s upcoming F1 opportunity will come in the States, saying, “Ferrari's plan is to keep him with PREMA for next year, targeting the title, before trying to find him a race seat in Formula 1 for 2025, when many, many seats will be up for grabs.”

With the competition being fierce at the FDA, Bearman’s debut at the Circuit of the Americas will set him aside from the rest, putting him one-step closer to achieving the ultimate dream of becoming a Formula 1 driver.