Why Bearman's Ferrari debut - and the phone data disaster that preceded - matters for F1 2025

Oliver Bearman’s appearance at Autosport International last weekend revealed plenty about a new Formula 1 driver. But it also highlighted just how different the driver line-up for the coming campaign is compared to 2024 and why that matters to fans

Charles Leclerc, Lando Norris, and now Oliver Bearman – the most recent Formula 1 drivers to have opened the Autosport International Show.

In cutting the red ribbon to allow the public access to the 2025 show last Saturday, Haas rookie Bearman closed a remarkably fast circle of single-seater career progression. For as his now F1 rivals Leclerc and Norris were opening ASI 2020 (and in the latter’s case 2019 ahead of his first F1 season too), Bearman was still karting.

His successes at that level meant he’d already attended ASI-hosted prize-giving ceremonies. And he was back on stage at the National Exhibition Centre ahead of his first Formula 2 season in 2023 too.

But becoming an F1 driver changes everything.

Indeed, Bearman and his team are discovering just how here, there and everywhere he must be these days, since his contract with Haas commenced on 1 January.

Just two days after his ASI appearance, Bearman had arrived at Jerez for the start of Haas’s first Testing of Previous Cars (TPC) programme – an outing with the team’s 2023 F1 car. New team-mate Esteban Ocon and Toyota driver Ritomo Miyata will also drive.

But ASI was long earmarked in Bearman’s 2025 diary. His team had identified the show as a chance to increase his profile. Giving fans access to the Briton away from what can be overwhelmingly busy – not to mention tightly restricted – F1 race events.

Bearman’s management therefore tracked down his 2021 Italian Formula 4 car, dressed it back up in its original sponsor decals and paired it on a dedicated stand with the crash helmets he’d worn during his two substitute appearances for Haas last year (still bearing the grime kicked off the Baku streets and the dropped from the skies above Interlagos).

The stand was also selling Bearman-branded merchandise. Given official F1 race merch shops only sell specific team kit – with limited driver-specific items depending on the local market – the business case behind such a move is obvious.

Bearman is based in Monaco these days but previously moved to Maranello to be close to Ferrari’s factory while a junior driver with the outfit. This meant he could take part in simulator sessions for the organisation that will pay his Haas salary in 2025, and complete the necessary training regime, which included work on his neck to cope with regular F1 G-force punishment.

Bearman’s father David and brother Thomas were also in attendance in Birmingham last Saturday.

And for anyone wondering why the shots of a tense David watching his son’s Jeddah F1 debut for Ferrari were not repeated when Bearman replaced the banned Kevin Magnussen at Haas last September, it was because that weekend his father was at the Red Bull Ring watching Thomas. The younger Bearman was making a one-off appearance in the Euro 4 F4 championship, with his father watching the F1 timing screens closely too when the Baku sessions were on.

Bearman’s stall also hosted an autograph session, with the queue having to close to ASI customers over an hour before Bearman picked up a pen.

It’s clear his career to this point has already made an impression on F1 fans, with some even travelling from Japan to try and meet him again after his Super Formula test (all about learning Suzuka ahead of April’s 2025 F1 round there) last month.

Before all this, Bearman had made two media appearances. As well as an interview with Autosport, which we’ll publish later in the off-season, he was interviewed by Sky Sports F1 presenter David Croft on ASI’s main stage.

During this, Bearman recalled how he’d grown up watching Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso, Jenson Button and Sebastian Vettel do battle at the top level. He then retold “quite a funny story” regarding how he came to replace then Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz at the Jeddah race last year – the launchpad to his current position.

“I was at lunch,” Bearman recalled. “My manager Chris got a call from Fred [Ferrari team boss, Fred Vasseur], but he had no credit left on his phone. Fred called him and then it locked out straightaway.

“So, I had to call him [Fred] – because, luckily, I’d filled up my SIM card. It probably cost my Dad a fortune that call. I said, ‘Fred, I've got 10 seconds, otherwise I’ll run out of data’.

“Of course, I knew what was going on [with Sainz’s earlier illness, later diagnosed as appendicitis]. I didn't have time to laugh about it in the moment, but now I can laugh a lot about it.”

Now 10 months on, it’s worth considering why the 2024 Jeddah race still matters. Not just for Bearman, but by nearly a quarter of this year’s F1 driver cohort.

Bearman and his manager Chris Harfield had effectively been sworn to secrecy about his Ferrari debut. By the time the F1 press corps had discovered what was going on, Bearman was already going through preparations with the Scuderia’s engineers.

The pressure was on in an unexpected and immense fashion. Bearman was nervous and it was Vasseur who calmed him down and got him focused on the early new tasks at hand.

He delivered, and soon doors were opening that led to his 2025 Haas deal. These had already been partially put ajar by the impression he’d made on team boss Ayao Komatsu back at the 2023 Mexican GP.

The Japanese engineer turned team principal plays plenty close to his chest. But it was obvious from that point onwards how highly he rated his now F1 star.

Bearman has since been joined by four more rookies on the entry list for the upcoming campaign. As last season progressed, a school of thought erupted in the paddock that opines on how it was Bearman’s Jeddah result – seventh – in Sainz’s car that caused this.

Gabriel Bortoleto may well have made it anyway – a Leclerc/George Russell/Oscar Piastri-like return of back-to-back F3/GP3 titles is never likely to be ignored by F1 teams.

But for other juniors, Bearman’s Jeddah return showed how what amounts to a punt can pay off handsomely. They have the speed – Bearman ending 2024 having outqualified Nico Hulkenberg in both his Haas substitute outings – and cost less to F1 squads than the higher salaries earned by established drivers with hundreds of GP starts.

The pressure is only going to increase for Bearman and co as 2025 gets underway.

After all, it’s impossible to lose an off-season (although Red Bull certainly had a good go last year). But his first public appearance as a full-time F1 driver was revealing, nevertheless, and highlights just how one of the many subplots of the upcoming campaign is the very different driver line-up – a popular topic with fans – compared to the stagnation of 2023-2024.

In this article
Alex Kalinauckas
Formula 1
Oliver Bearman
Haas F1 Team
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