Oliver Bearman says media hype is blessing and curse in case of him and Andrea Kimi Antonelli, as the Brit expands on working with Haas.
Ever since the start of the 2024 F1 season, the media hype around Prema F2 drivers Bearman and Antonelli has been strong. While the former with his Ferrari links had Haas always on the mind, the latter had firm say on Mercedes.
Bearman lucked into a Ferrari F1 drive in place of Carlos Sainz in Jeddah which paved way for him to align himself with Haas. While one has secured his drive, the other is on the rumour list with a strong chance to replace Lewis Hamilton.
But both are having a difficult run in F2. While Antonelli still is inside the Top 10 in his rookie season, Bearman has a much harder run. And the media hype has not worked for them, which the Brit thinks is a blessing as well as a curse.
“I would say it’s a similar problem that we have,” said Bearman. “Both Kimi and I are the most, I would say, probably even Kimi more so than me, but we are quite outspoken about, let’s say, in the media, especially because the results that we’re getting is not quite where we were expecting or expected to be.
“So it doesn’t make it easy, but that’s part of life. The media is always going to do that type of stuff. So it’s a blessing and a curse,” summed up Bearman. The Brit, though, is looking forward to his F1 season. For him, the announcement hasn’t changed much.
He is looking at FP1 drives like he used to. “My approach has always been fairly similar in that you know I’m just trying to build up the session and do it step by step,” said Bearman. “I wouldn’t say it’s changed much because I’ve always taken the approach of not trying to prove anything and then trying to drive within myself but it’s definitely nice to know that I don’t have to do anything more than I need to.
“There are a lot of areas that you cannot identify all of them in just one session. Generally, my qualifying pace, let’s say, has been the weaker side of things. But I think I’ve said this for the last three or four sessions now. It’s taking small steps, but at the end, I always feel like if I did a second set of tyres then I would be fine.
“It’s just making that step from a hard tyre or a medium onto a soft with lower fuel and qualifying power. It’s quite a big step and I don’t tend to make it yet. But by the same token it’s just a free practice one session. There’s no need to take any risks,” summed up Bearmam, who is getting to grips with the car and the team.
He is giving feedback to get himself comfortable when he starts next year. “It definitely helps me to have a lot of experience with the car, with the team, with the systems,” continued Bearman. “That will definitely make my life a bit easier when I finally jump in for when I can say it’s my car.
“It will be a lot easier to, there’s less things to learn on the spot. I know the people and everything like that so there’s less new faces, which is nice. I’ve given a bit of feedback on things that work well, things that work a bit less well. It’s more driver preference and it’s more what you get used to.
“I’ve done a lot of simulator days now with Ferrari since the beginning, so I know what I want from systems and steering wheel, for example. Of course right now I just get what I’m given and that’s absolutely fine but there’s definitely a few things that I would change for myself and it’s simply purely driver preference, but yeah it’s a bit early to say what I like about the car and what I don’t but I do some work with them on the simulator and that’s also helpful to create a direction for the guys.”
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