Highly-rated British teen insists ‘he’d be ready’ for 2025 F1 seat amid Haas links

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Ollie Bearman believes he’d be “ready to go” if he was offered a seat in Formula 1 next year.

The British 18-year-old, who made his debut on an F1 weekend in Mexico in October while driving a practice session for Haas, finished sixth in his first F2 season last year and is currently preparing for another season in the series with Prema Racing.

But Bearman, who hails from Chelmsford in Essex, has his sights set on a spot at the top-table for 2025 – with both Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg’s seat at Haas not secured beyond this year.

“I know I’d be ready to go,” Bearman said, when asked about a potential seat in 2025.

“I know I have what it takes, but of course preparation would be important and, first of all, I’d have to do a good job in F2 – that’s step one. But I have no doubt that if I get a call-up, I’m ready to go.

“Once you join F1, you’re going up against guys with a lot of races under their belts, and coming in as a rookie is a difficult job. It’s something that we’ve thought about and it will be really important that before I start an F1 campaign, I need to be really prepared.

“Hopefully that looks like more FP1s, and there’ll be some private testing as well. I don’t have any say on that, but in an ideal world, that will be how I approach an F1 season.”

Haas boss Guenther Steiner was full of praise for Bearman’s performance in both Mexico and Abu Dhabi, where he took to the wheel in FP1.

“He did a good job and stayed very calm,” said Steiner. “He behaved very maturely for an 18-year-old and also delivered a good performance in the car.

“He’s confident, but not overly confident. That’s a fine line.”

Bearman is in the Ferrari Driver Academy and has won the German and Italian F4 championships in the past. He also finished third in Formula 3 in 2022.

The 2024 F2 season gets underway on the same weekend as F1, in Bahrain on 1-2 March.