The youngest British driver to make his Formula One practice debut in a championship grand prix weekend is Oliver Bearman, who participated in the session in Mexico City on Friday at the age of 18. Bearman, a Formula Two driver sponsored by Ferrari, took over the Ferrari-powered Haas car of regular racer Kevin Magnussen for the hour-long session at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, fulfilling the requirement for teams to provide track time for rookies. Ayao Komatsu, the team’s trackside engineering director, expressed satisfaction with Bearman’s performance, stating that he exceeded expectations and demonstrated professionalism without making any errors. The communication and feedback provided by Bearman were also commended. Komatsu called Bearman’s FP1 session “really impressive.”
In addition to the practice session in Mexico City, Bearman will also be participating in practice at the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix next month. Reflecting on his first experience, Bearman shared that his main goal was to have a clean session, which was successfully achieved. He also mentioned gaining confidence in the car and quickly adapting to the soft tires and long runs. While acknowledging room for improvement, Bearman expressed his overall satisfaction with his first FP1 session.
Prior to Bearman, the previous youngest British driver to participate in a practice session was Lando Norris, who was also 18 years old when he took part in McLaren’s practice session at the 2018 Belgian Grand Prix. It is worth noting that Bearman’s practice debut was with the Haas team.
This news article was reported by Alan Baldwin in London and edited by Shri Navaratnam.
