Bearman's feat
What he managed to do Oliver Bearman in Saudi Arabia it has the flavor of an amazing performance for a debutant called at the last moment by the Ferrari to replace the official driver: on track since PL3, the 18-year-old came close to reaching Q3 by just 36 thousandths of a second, finishing 11th. In the race, however, he managed to recover up to the seventh positionkeeping behind two compatriots of the caliber of Lando Norris and, above all, a seven-time world champion like Lewis Hamilton.
Villeneuve still at the top
An applause-worthy debut that earned him the title of 'Driver of the Day' and the congratulations of Jock Clear, Head of the Ferrari Driver Academy, of which Bearman has been a member since 2022. Yet, despite everything, the Briton's first race is not part of Clear's best F1 debut ever. In the F1 Nation podcast, the engineer pointed to that of Jacques Villeneuve with Williams in 1996however praising the result of his driver for his age and circumstances: “I guess you'll all say I'm a little biased – he explained, referring to the fact that he was the Canadian's track engineer at the time – and Jacques had won an IndyCar championship by the time he got into an F1 car, but obviously he took pole in Melbourne and he would have won that race if Newey hadn't told us to move so Damon Hill would win. Jacques was 26 at the time, whereas this guy is 18. So, at this level, at this stage, having come out of an F2 car at 18, I've never seen anything better“.
Unexpected result
The fact remains that Clear praised Bearman not only for his debut, but obviously for the result he managed to achieve in a weekend in which he had obtained pole in F2, only to be called by Ferrari: “I couldn't have hoped for a better weekend for Ollie – he added – if you had written the script, you would have complained a little about the final result. You would have said, 'Yes, let's be realistic.' Because if I took him to a GP and told him, two weeks before, 'You will do the Grand Prix in Saudi Arabia', he would mentally prepare for it. We can do some things. We can try some departures. But when you put him on track on Friday morning, with just one free practice session, and then put him in qualifying against the big boys, it's disturbing. It's very, very intimidating for anyone. From our point of view, we are very proud of how well he has integrated into the team and how the team has supported him. There is so much information available, there is so much work that goes into an F1 car, and we have kept things simple. With Matteo Togninalli, the chief engineer, from the beginning we said: 'Keep it simple for Ollie'. There is a lot of information available, but let's not overload it. Let's give him the opportunity to update himself. What you saw is what we knew he was capable of doing, but I didn't expect it under these circumstances“.
Intelligence rewarded
To this, Clear added another compliment to the young driver, who proved to be very intelligent despite his lack of experience: “I've often said that Oliver will get better and better as he gets closer to F1, because F1 recognizes true intelligence, truly thinking drivers. – he concluded – Drivers who can think through situations really shine in F1. Ollie is very sharp and intelligent. That's what she demonstrated this weekend. Like I said, we know he's fast, we've seen him in our car and we know he can drive a fast car.
#Jock #Clear #differences #Villeneuve #Bearman39s #debuts
