Oliver Bearman will race in Formula One next year with Haas after being announced as part of the team’s 2025 line-up ahead of the British Grand Prix.
Bearman, 19, joins Haas on a multi-year deal, and will become the fourth driver in F1 racing under the British flag next year, joining Lewis Hamilton, George Russell and Lando Norris on the grid when he graduates from Formula Two.
Following an impressive cameo performance for Ferrari at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in March, Bearman has long been in the running for a seat with Haas, which uses Ferrari engines as part of a technical alliance.
Haas confirmed the signing of Bearman ahead of his third of six scheduled practice outings with the team this season, which will take place in front of his home crowd at Silverstone, England, on Friday.
“It’s hard to put into words just how much this means to me,” Bearman said in a team statement. “To say out loud that I will be a Formula One driver for Haas makes me so immensely proud.
“To be one of the very few people who get to do the thing what they dreamed of as a child is something truly incredible.”
How Bearman clinched the Haas F1 seat
Ever since his star performance in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, as a late stand-in for Carlos Sainz earlier this year, Bearman was already on the radar as a potential Haas driver for 2025.
He joined the Ferrari Driver Academy in 2021 at the age of 16 off the back of winning the German and Italian Formula Four titles in the same season.
Bearman narrowly missed out on the Formula Three title the following year, but quickly impressed on the move up to F2 with Prema, winning four races en route to sixth place in the standings.
It led to Bearman getting his maiden F1 practice outings with Haas in Mexico and Abu Dhabi last year, as well as being named the reserve driver for both Ferrari and Haas going into 2024.
When Sainz was ruled out in Saudi Arabia due to an appendicitis, Ferrari turned to Bearman who, at just 18 years old, became the third-youngest driver in F1 history to start a grand prix. Despite having only a single practice session to get up to speed, Bearman put in a faultless display with zero fuss or mistakes as he recorded an impressive seventh-placed finish.
Bearman impressed at the Saudi Arabia Grand Prix (Clive Rose/Getty Images)
The performance reinforced Ferrari’s faith in Bearman, who has been advancing his F1 career with private test runs for the Italian manufacturer throughout the year and participating in practice sessions for Haas at Imola and Barcelona.
Ayao Komatsu, the Haas team principal, said Bearman had “developed into an incredibly mature driver” in the Ferrari academy. “The world saw that for themselves when he was called in at the last minute to compete at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix,” he added. “Oliver proved he was more than ready for the task, and we’ve seen that for ourselves running him in the Haas cars in our FP1 sessions over the past two seasons.
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“We’re looking forward to further developing him as a driver and reaping the benefits of his talent — both inside and outside of the car.”
Bearman’s second F2 season has proved difficult as his team, Prema, has struggled with the new specification of car and encountered reliability issues. But he scored his first victory of the campaign in Austria last weekend in the sprint race, and will see out the season before moving up to F1 next year.
Upon joining Haas, Bearman will have long-term signs on emulating his fellow Ferrari Driver Academy graduate, Charles Leclerc, who was signed to Ferrari’s senior team in 2019 and has since become one of the leading drivers in F1.
Where this leaves the F1 driver market
Bearman’s confirmation has been regarded as such an inevitability that it really does not change a lot for the driver market going into next year.
Haas announced back in April that Nico Hulkenberg would be leaving at the end of the year to join Sauber, while his team-mate, Kevin Magnussen, is also out of contract.
Haas is one of four teams waiting on a decision from Sainz about his next move which will then allow a number of free agents to consider where they will sign.
Sainz, who will be replaced by Hamilton at Ferrari next season, is subject to offers from Williams, Sauber and Alpine for next year, all of whom have made him their No 1 target.
Haas has been in talks with a number of free agents for next year over its second seat. The current favorite for the seat is Esteban Ocon, who will leave Alpine at the end of the season after a mutual agreement to part ways upon the expiration of his contract.
Magnussen, who has spent the majority of his career with Haas and returned in 2022 after a year out of F1, said in Spain that he was “in contention for a few of the seats” but also suggested he was at peace with the possibility of not being on the grid next year given the “cost” of being in the sport.
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Ferrari rising star Ollie Bearman is getting ready for F1: ‘I have what it takes’
(Alex Caparros — Formula 1/Formula Motorsport Limited via Getty Images)
