A year after his surprise Jeddah F1 debut, Ollie Bearman praised the competitiveness across the grid and how it’s left Haas striving for perfection.
In 2024, at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, Bearman traded an F2 pole position for a Ferrari Formula 1 seat. The decision altered his trajectory, and a year later, he finds himself four races into his rookie F1 season.
Bearman admitted that he looked forward to Jeddah after impressive performances he’s managed in the past. During media day, he said, “I always love driving this track. It’s my third time here and always had decent performances.”
“And then of course, to have my debut as well—it means the track will always be quite special to me, so I’m really happy to be back.”
The tight walls of the Jeddah Corniche Circuit make it a high-pressure track for drivers. With each mistake harbouring the possibility of ruining the driver’s weekend. For Bearman, this is one of the aspects he looks forward to.
“It’s really high grip, which is always fun for us as drivers. And the walls are close, which is always interesting. It’s a really high-speed, high-commitment track—just a fun one to drive. I think it’s a highlight for a lot of us during the season.”
Weekend expectations
While the season has had an impressive start for Haas and Bearman, he was reluctant to make any predictions about the possible performances in the VF-25.
He said, “Who knows? We came to Suzuka not expecting much because of the nature of the track, and we were in Q3 and scored points…I’m still thinking of Australia a little bit in the back of my mind. But I know that we can have a good weekend. So let’s see how it goes—yeah, no predictions.”
So far, the 2025 season has been a strong start for the American team, with multiple points finishes for both drivers, weekend to weekend.
In Bahrain, Bearman made a stellar drive from last on the grid to tenth. Though the driver was no doubt impressive, the Brit rued being at the back of the grid to begin with. He admitted, “Qualifying was very poor, but we got a bit of fortune in the race with the safety car to maximise and score a point, which was great.”
He went on to praise the consistency of the VF-25 and the good performances the team have had in the early rounds. “The other two races, we really deserved to be up there and scored some good points. And we’ve had two races now with both cars in the points, which is pretty good.”
“Australia was really difficult, but we turned it around quickly and brought a small upgrade to the car. Which allowed us to run it more in the window we want to. Now we’re able to extract a lot of performance out of it, which is nice.”
A competitive grid
Bearman praised how competive the grid has become in the final year of the reuglations, adding a different pressure onto the weekend.
He said, “You know, being this far into a set of regulations means that everyone is getting closer to the ceiling of performance.”
He opened up about how the importance of the free practice session as qualifying preparation caught him off guard in comaprison to F2. Saying, “Coming from F2 to F1, I was really excited and looking forward to having time to build up through FP1, 2 and 3. But then you realise all of those laps count towards your qualifying lap.”
“So every lap you need to be absolutely on it, and if you miss one lap, mess it up or the balance isn’t there, it hurts you down the line.”
The Brit also noted that the quick progression between sessions is likely to hurt rookies more than the veteran drivers on the grid.
The lack of experience and laps on certain tracks, leaving them with something missing. However, either way, Bearman enjoys the tight battle and thin margins between teams and drivers.
“Maybe it hurts rookies a little bit more, not having driven at a lot of these tracks before in F1 and stuff like that. But it’s really cool—and annoying, depending on what side you’re on. But it’s really nice to be in such a tight battle.”
“I think the margin from Q1 to Q2, and even Q2 to Q3, all year, has been less than one-tenth. So you need to be on top of your game, and that’s what we’re here for.”
