Oliver Bearman is suddenly the most famous Englishman in Italy. His Prema teammate in Formula Two, Kimi Antonelli, might yet become the most famous Italian in England should he get the nod from Mercedes to replace Lewis Hamilton. Combined the talented nation shifters are four years younger than Hamilton.
Little marks the passing of time like the arrival of a tyro who was barely three years old when Hamilton won his first world title. The elevation of Bearman to the Ferrari race seat following the withdrawal of appendicitis victim Carlos Sainz lit up a Saudi Arabia paddock fatigued by the twin onslaught of Red Bull dominance on the track and controversy off it.
With one clean lap, 11 seconds quicker than the time he set in taking F2 pole on Thursday, it was a case of Christian who? And none was cheering louder than Horner, who was pleading for a cessation of interest in his internal dispute with a female Red Bull employee, which rumbles on despite an independent inquiry dismissing claims of inappropriate behaviour made against him.
The 18-year-old from Chelmsford bailed him out big time. As a product of Ferrari’s junior driver programme since 2021 and a former champion in German and Italian F4, Bearman was always F1 bound. Indeed, he is one of the reserve drivers at Haas this season and had his first exposure in a F1 car with the Ferrari customer team during practice at last year’s Mexican Grand Prix.
When he pulled out of the garage in Jeddah shortly after 4.30pm local time on Friday he became the youngest Ferrari driver, Britain’s youngest F1 driver, the first to make his F1 debut in a Ferrari for more than 50 years (Arturo Merzario, 1972 British GP, Brands Hatch) and the first driver from the UK to pilot a Prancing Horse since Eddie Irvine at the end of the last century. The last Englishman to wear red was Nigel “Il Leone” Mansell in 1990.
At 6ft 3in Bearman does not conform to the typical racing driver template. Mansell was considered tall at 5ft 9in, half an inch taller than Irvine. Esteban Ocon and Alexander Albon at 6ft 1in were the tallest on the grid before Bearman strode through the paddock doors.
Hans-Joachim Stuck, who drove for March, Brabham and Shadows in the 1970s, cast the longest-ever shadow from a height of 6ft 4in, more than a foot taller than RB’s Yuki Tsunoda, who is the shortest on the present grid at 5ft 2in.
Bearman closed out the session in 10th, 400ths of a second behind Hamilton in ninth, and this on the slower medium tyre. Having missed out on both practice sessions on Thursday, completed by Sainz despite feeling unwell, Bearman barely missed a beat in a display of remarkable maturity. This would not have surprised his boss at Haas, Ayao Komatsu, who described his debut in Mexico five months ago, when he finished 15th in the time sheets, as faultless.
The car Bearman inherits finished third at the first race of the season in Bahrain. Were Bearman to arrive on the podium on Saturday after entering his first qualifying session without a single run on the softer compound tyre, it would surpass Hamilton’s debut in Australia in 2007 when he finished third behind winner Kimi Raikkonen and McLaren teammate Fernando Alonso.
Bearman wasn’t even born when Alonso won his first world title in 2005. Alonso made his debut at Minardi in 2001 aged 19, and we thought that was impressive. Max Verstappen holds the record at 17. Since the minimum age has since been raised to 18, Verstappen will forever retain that distinction. And all things being equal he will continue his dominance of the sport with a second successive victory in Jeddah.
But Verstappen won’t be the headline story. That honour has already been nabbed by Bearman.
