Oliver Bearman had to jump into the Ferrari of Carlos Sainz on a very short notice in Saudi Arabia earlier this year. The British prodigy was going to face a challenging race at a street track like Jeddah with very little preparation. However, Bearman revealed that Charles Leclerc and Frederic Vasseur sat him down to get him up to speed before the race got underway.
Speaking on the High-Performance podcast, Bearman stated how Leclerc was “super helpful” and understood the difficult position he was in. He stated, “The thing that he helped me was before the race we sat down with him and also Fred [Vasseur].”
“He was helping a little bit because I hadn’t done any long runs, I hadn’t done more than like two pushes in a row before doing the race. He gave me bit of insight about the tire behavior and stuff that hadn’t experienced yet and its a little detail but its super helpful.”
While it was his debut Grand Prix, Bearman was unfazed. Once a few laps went by, he was lapping closer to Leclerc’s pace, which was quite the achievement for the young Briton. Eventually, he did exceptionally well to finish P7
His excellent performance solidified his chances to earn the Haas seat for 2025 — which finally materialized in July 2024. Even Leclerc had vouched for Bearman to get a full-time seat after his promising debut in Jeddah.
Besides the Monegasque, even Sainz was doing his part to help the Ferrari prodigy from the garage. Bearman revealed that the Spaniard was telling the engineers to not overload him with information during the race.
Although, now that the 19-year-old has passed the pressure test of his debut, he would want to properly gear up for his rookie season in 2025. Bearman feels that he still has to bridge the gap in terms of the physical demands of F1.
Bearman is aiming to work on his physical fitness for F1
The pressure on the neck and abdomen while driving an F1 car is considerably higher than in junior categories like F3 and F2. Bearman would have got a teaser of the same during his debut in Jeddah. That is why, he is quite certain that he needs to train very hard to achieve F1-level of fitness.
The 19-year-old said, “Even the legs moving around, you know, you have to be really strong with the core (and) with the back.” Bearman has been part of the Ferrari Driver Academy for a while now. So, he has done testing mileage with the team and isn’t alien to the exertion of driving an F1 car for several hours.
However, driving it every other weekend with a hectic schedule for over 24 rounds is something that needs sustainable fitness. The 2025 pre-season training would be crucial for Bearman to level up his fitness and gear up for his first grueling full season in F1.
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