F1 star spins new 2026 car at Ferrari base

Ollie Bearman, Kimi Antonelli, Haas, Mercedes, Bahrain, 2025 — Photo: © IMAGO

Pre-Season Testing

F1 star spins new 2026 car at Ferrari base

Not the ideal first outing of the year

Chris Deeley Editor

Experienced sports writer covering F1 and other motorsports since 2023

Sunday 25 January 2026 15:51

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When you're the heir apparent to one of the two F1 seats at Ferrari, the pressure's fairly high.

When you get to take your current team's new car out for its first on-track appearance of the year, then, at Ferrari's Maranello home, the day after Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc launched the Scuderia's new challenger on the same tarmac, it'd be a really good idea to make a good impression.

Obviously, Oliver Bearman became the second pre-season spinner of 2026 instead, in the new Haas. Oops.

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To be fair to Bearman, the weather in northern Italy is currently very bleak, and the spin was so gentle, at such low speed, that he didn't even leave the track. Also...nobody at Ferrari's actually judging him on a shakedown run in late January, obviously (although if any F1 team was going to be sufficiently idiosyncratic to think that was important, it would probably be Ferrari).

Bearman hoping to use 2025 experience

Bearman is coming into his second full season as an F1 driver after outscoring team-mate Esteban Ocon in 2025, thanks in large part to a late-season run of five consecutive points finishes between Singapore and Las Vegas.

It's broadly unclear how Haas will fare this year under the new set of regulations, and likely will be until the first race of the season in Australia, as teams attempt to fine-tune their cars and hide their progress from rivals.

Bearman himself is hopeful of improving on his debut season, saying around the team's recent car launch: “I’ve really increased my knowledge base infinitely, because I’ve been put in experiences that you just can’t learn prior to experiencing them. I’ve definitely improved a lot in all of those areas and I’m really happy with how the season went, particularly the second half.

“I really upped my game, I felt like in the second half of the season, I started to put down some really some results that I was really happy with, and that was critical for me. I’m excited to continue that this year.”

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