Oliver Bearman speaks out on ‘unhealthy’ Haas speculation with talk of ‘done deal’
Oliver Bearman: the face of Haas's future?
Oliver Bearman was playing down the idea that an F1 2025 seat with Haas is already a done deal, as he prepares for a fresh FP1 outing with the team in Spain.
The Ferrari Driver Academy star, who impressed in a major way during his F1 debut with the team in Saudi Arabia, has been speculated as a major contender for an F1 2025 seat with Ferrari customer team Haas, with whom the 19-year-old Brit is making several FP1 appearances across the 2024 campaign.
Oliver Bearman shuts down ‘unhealthy’ F1 speculation
Additional reporting by Sam Cooper
Speaking to media including PlanetF1.com ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix, where Bearman will make his second Haas FP1 appearance of the season, he was quizzed on the talk that he will become one of their race drivers from 2025, and rumour has it that he has already put pen to paper on a deal.
Bearman shut down that suggestion, branding such speculation “unhealthy”.
“I mean, these are all rumours and speculation and stuff. There’s not really any backing to them,” he said.
“But I try to just stay focused on what I can do, on driving the car. And in the end, I try and stay away from this speculation, because it’s unhealthy.”
Asked if he does have a timeframe to confirm his racing plans for next year, Bearman replied: “Personally, no.
“My goal is, of course, as a driver to keep performing well.
“I think my FP1 in Imola went really well and I was happy with that. So I want to keep doing that.
“In terms of a timeframe, I don’t have anything defined.”
Once more pressed on the Haas speculation, it was put to Bearman that the general assumption is that this is a ‘cut and dried’ deal, so he was asked to confirm if that assumption is wrong.
“I don’t know if the assumption is wrong, or right,” he replied. “I mean, of course, that’s my goal. That’s what I’m aiming towards. There’s no hiding that.
“I have a few things personally that I’ve identified that I want to improve when I’m driving in F1, but that really comes with experience and doing more laps.
“And I think just me working towards that goal is going to hopefully be enough to get me where I want to be.”
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Bearman was asked to expand on these desired areas of improvement, as he picked out improving on the soft tyre during a qualifying run as an area of his F1 game that needs work.
However, he stressed that this is not something that concerns him, as he believes building up the experience is the answer.
“I tend to get up to speed pretty well, that’s one of my strengths,” he said, “I mean in Jeddah that was the case and even in Imola I seemed to be on the pace pretty quickly.
“But whenever we do a qualy sim on soft tyres, I don’t make the step that easily, because it’s quite a big step, you know, the track is evolving a lot, the tyre grip is suddenly much higher and the fuel loads are lower. And I tend not to maximise that yet.
“But I don’t need to really overthink that or worry about it. It’s just something that comes with experience and it will come. I’m not worried about that. It’s just I have identified it as something that I could work on and improve.”
There is at least one Haas vacancy for F1 2025, with Nico Hulkenberg already confirmed for a move to Sauber.
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