Oliver Bearman, the 21-year-old driver for Haas, remembers the primary time he watched a System 1 race on the monitor at Silverstone, in England. It was 2015, he was 10 years previous and he sat among the many partisan crowd of Lewis Hamilton supporters.
“I used to be screaming for Ferrari and Vettel,” Bearman stated concerning the Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel. “Vettel was on the rostrum, and I used to be the man screaming within the again. The one Ferrari fan, in all probability!”
Quick ahead to 2021 and Bearman is driving his personal automotive, racing at Silverstone for the primary time, within the British GB3 Championship in 2021, with a blended consequence.
“I certified on pole, however my wheel fell off within the race,” he stated. “In order that wasn’t ideally suited.”
This weekend, Bearman, who was born close to London, returns to Silverstone to compete within the British Grand Prix for the second time. He completed eleventh final 12 months.
“It’s one of many coolest tracks of the 12 months,” he stated. “It’s actually one the place the vehicles come alive. It’s a pleasure to drive F1 at Silverstone, and I’m trying ahead to it, notably because it’s my dwelling race. It’s a particular occasion.”
Bearman, in his second 12 months in System 1, has swiftly established himself on the grid.
His first System 1 race was at age 18 on the 2024 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, filling in for an ailing Carlos Sainz. Bearman completed seventh, scoring his first factors. That 12 months, he additionally began two races for Haas.
In 2025, he landed a full-time deal at Haas. Since then, he’s had an up-and-down marketing campaign, which peaked when he positioned fourth in Mexico Metropolis. He eclipsed his veteran teammate Esteban Ocon by 41 to 38 factors. That pattern has continued into 2026, with Bearman scoring 18 to Ocon’s 3, together with a excessive of fifth in China.
“I feel it’s been a superb begin to the 12 months in a broad image,” Bearman stated. “I feel I will be fairly pleased with the beginning of the 12 months. By way of private efficiency, which is absolutely the one factor I’m in command of, I feel I’m doing a superb job.”
Bearman pointed to a gathering final summer season along with his private coach after they mentioned what they have been pleased with and what he wanted to enhance on.
“It was clear the pace was there, however the consistency? Not fairly,” Bearman stated. Ayao Komatsu, the Haas staff principal, has famous Bearman’s development.
He and his staff “know the atmosphere they should create; some drivers don’t try this,” Komatsu stated. He added that one other driver would possibly “encompass himself with individuals who inform him he’s nice, you recognize? ‘You’ve accomplished nothing fallacious,’ et cetera.”
Bearman will not be like that, he stated, including that his administration staff is “very partaking and open. And he’s clearly in his second 12 months, so he understands us higher; we perceive him higher as properly.”
It’s the delicate variations that set Bearman aside, Komatsu stated, at all times being on the “proper aspect of the positive margin. However that makes him extremely fast.”
Bearman can already acknowledge the distinction with a 12 months’s expertise below his belt.
“I’m understanding issues a bit higher, understanding the tires, in a position to predict what’s going to occur previous to it truly occurring,” he stated. “Final 12 months I used to be type of at all times reacting to one thing as an alternative of pre-empting. These issues — you’ll be able to solely actually construct that with expertise, understanding the tracks just like the again of your hand. That doesn’t occur in a single race weekend. I wish to proceed to work on my consistency. I feel I’ve accomplished a extremely large step in that this 12 months, and I’m actually pleased with the extent that I’m acting at on a weekly foundation.”
Bearman lives in Monaco, and his downtime away from System 1 is necessary.
“My No. 1 ardour is sport,” he stated. “I’ve to remain match as a part of the job — I completely adore it. I’m biking just about each morning, there’s some stunning biking round Monaco, a few of the greatest climbs on this planet.”
A number of main cyclists are based mostly there too, and Bearman counts the four-time Tour de France champion Tadej Pogacar amongst his occasional driving companions. “It have to be extremely boring for them to cycle with us,” Bearman stated.
He additionally performs tennis and has attended tournaments, together with Wimbledon.
“I like tennis, and I’m a giant fan of the mentality required to compete on the high stage,” he stated. “These guys are so extremely match and powerful, and it’s a giant motivator for us as properly.”
Bearman has had an affiliation with Ferrari since 2022, initially as a junior driver, and continues to maintain them appraised of his progress, with a watch to sometime race with the staff. Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc are the staff’s present drivers.
“It’s my absolute dream to have success, and to have it with Ferrari can be actually the final word aim,” Bearman stated. “Additionally, since they believed in me from the very starting, you recognize, that must be repaid in some way. I wish to develop into a Ferrari driver.”
Ferrari wouldn’t touch upon Bearman’s aspirations.
Bearman emphasised that “I see it as an enormous success to proceed with Haas subsequent 12 months, if that does occur. I feel the staff are on an awesome trajectory.”
His boss stated the staff has no plans on letting him go.
“Why would I not wish to preserve maintain of him?” Komatsu stated.
Bearman is keen to assist Haas rise within the constructors’ championship.
“I wish to be the one which hopefully sooner or later brings them onto the rostrum,” he stated, though he’s conscious of the problem of changing one of many main groups: Mercedes, McLaren, Ferrari and Pink Bull.
“We’re not at that stage, however it’s a journey,” he stated. “It’s not that we should always count on that too quickly. First, we have to regularly combat within the midfield and proceed to combat on the entrance of the midfield and develop into the fifth staff.”
“It’s not going to occur in a single day,” Bearman stated. “It’s not going to occur in a single 12 months. It in all probability received’t occur in three years. However this staff is destined for excellent issues.”
