Haas may have found the solution for its driver vacancy in the 2025 Formula 1 season. Team principal Ayao Komatsu has stated that promoting Oliver Bearman to starter could be an ‘easy decision’.
The American team is looking for a replacement for Nico Hulkenberg, who has signed with Sauber for next season, in preparation for the transition to Audi. Bearman appears as the favorite for the vacancy and will participate in at least six free practices (FP1) with Haas in 2024, starting in Imola next month.
Bearman, 18, already made an unexpected debut for Ferrari at the start of this year’s championship, replacing Carlos Sainz in Saudi Arabia, finishing in a great P7. Additionally, Bearman participated in two training sessions with Haas at the end of last year.
His performance impressed the team at the time, and the upcoming FP1 sessions will serve as an additional chance to increase his chances of becoming a starter in 2025.
Asked by RacingNews365 if it would be easy to promote Bearman if he continues to perform well, Komatsu replied: “Yes, of course.”
Despite the excitement over Bearman, the Haas boss assures that the team’s approach to training will not change.
“It doesn’t change because, as a team, you have an objective for that weekend, you have a clear idea of what you need to take away from all the free practice sessions, to prepare for the qualifying session and the race. So this approach doesn’t change. The question is whether the pilot understands this objective? Can he play a strong role in fulfilling it? If this young driver is only interested in accelerating as fast as possible everywhere, showing the world how fast he is, that is not a mature approach. But Ollie isn’t like that. What Ollie showed in Mexico and Abu Dhabi is that he has the speed. He really understands the bigger picture and can contribute positively to the team. I would like to see this continue. Furthermore, at some point he will face problems, perhaps a car problem that causes him to miss half the session? How does he react to this kind of adversity? That would be interesting to see,” concluded the Haas boss.
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