Lewis Hamilton and Oliver Bearman speak at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix (Image: Getty Images)
Oliver Bearman has landed his first F1 seat with Haas for 2025 and, as a Ferrari junior driver, is being groomed to perhaps replace Lewis Hamilton when the seven-time champion retires
Lewis Hamilton provided the motivation for Oliver Bearman to make his Formula 1 dream come true.
The teenager has landed his first full-time F1 seat with Haas for the 2025 season. It come on the back of an impressive debut for Ferrari in March, when he was called up to fill in for Carlos Sainz when the Spaniard was struck down with appendicitis.
He finished seventh, ahead of fellow Britons Hamilton and Lando Norris, with a stunning performance. And on Thursday he spoke to reporters, including Mirror Sport, at Silverstone for the first time since his Haas seat was confirmed.
Bearman said he is still processing the fact he will be going up against all his childhood heroes on a regular basis. He said: “It’s crazy. I received a video from [Hamilton] in 2015 or 2016 which said, ‘Keep pushing, hopefully you can make it to F1 one day’. And here I am!
“It’s crazy to share the track with these guys I watched racing. It’s something really special and a pinch yourself moment. These guys are huge stars and people that I look up to. It’s quite amazing that I’ll share the circuit with them.”
Explaining how the video message came about, he added: “I think he met one of my mum’s friends or something like that, and she got him to make a video. It was the most amazing day of my life! I got reminded of it yesterday and saw the video again, it was a funny moment.”
Bearman is Ferrari’s next big starlet and the Italians hope he can follow in the footsteps of Charles Leclerc and become the future of their team. For now, he will learn his trade with Haas while Leclerc will be joined by Hamilton next year.
The seven-time F1 champion will be 40 by that time and is in the twilight of his glittering career. The timing looks to be right for Bearman to one day be his successor, though the 19-year-old insists he is not yet thinking that far ahead.
He added: “That would be the dream, right? It’s not really in my hands, I feel like. All I can do is perform at my best and that’s my goal anyway. Anything that comes after that is not really in my control. I’m focusing on my future with Haas and I’m really excited to get started.
“It’s hard not to think that [he could one day replace Hamilton]. But I’m not thinking about it! I have to sit down with everyone from Ferrari and see exactly what they need, but I don’t think their expectations will be any more difficult than mine because I’m already hard enough on myself and demand a high level of performance.”
