Helmut Marko recently wrote in his column that he would instantly find Oliver Bearman a place in
F1 after the performance he showed during the 2024 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
He had one opportunity to show what he could do at one of the most challenging circuits on the Formula 1 calendar, and he made the most of it.
Finishing in P7 after starting from P11 was an incredible performance, and even the team principal of
Ferrari, Fred Vasseur, said he was
surprised by the "mega" job that the 18-year-old did.
Looking at the situation from the outside,
Red Bull Racing advisor Helmut Marko wrote in his column for
speedweek.com that he thought the British junior was sensational.
"I found Ollie Bearman's debut in the Ferrari sensational. To perform like that on a track like Jeddah without much training was very strong. At times, he was almost on the level of Charles Leclerc.|
Bearman was under threat of being caught by
Lando Norris and
Lewis Hamilton at the end of the race, which pushed him to pick up his pace. As you can see in the analysis by @FDataAnalysis, he managed to match some of Leclerc's lap times at the end of the race.
"But what does Ferrari do now? They've signed the expensive Hamilton, Leclerc has a long-term contract, and now Bearman, a super talent, is showing up."
As Marko hinted, Ferrari is in a situation where they possibly have a super talent and a future World Champion in their future ranks, but they can't offer him a seat for at least the next two years.
"If I were Fred Vasseur, I would immediately look for an F1 cockpit for Bearman in another team, Haas, for example."
At the moment, it indeed seems like the 18-year-old could get a chance at Haas. The team has close ties with Ferrari, and the team principal,
Ayao Komatsu, admitted he already had his eyes on Bearman. Marko added:
"Now they need to invest money again to have him trained. The teams are currently relatively financially saturated; they will let themselves be paid dearly for it."
